MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT # 4
STS-91
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1998  - 5 a.m. CDT
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  The six astronauts on board Discovery are preparing for today's
docking with the Mir Space Station and a reunion with U.S. Astronaut
Andy Thomas, who is about to conclude his more-than-four-month mission
to the Russian outpost.  If Discovery returns to Earth as scheduled on
June 12, Thomas will have spent 141 days in space, 130 of them as a
Mir crew member.

  The STS-91 crew - Commander Charlie Precourt, Pilot Dom Gorie, and
Mission Specialists Franklin Chang-Diaz, Wendy Lawrence, Janet Kavandi
and Valery Ryumin, were awakened at 4:06 a.m. Central time, to the
sound of "Come And Go With Me" by the Del Vikings, in honor of their
retrieval of Thomas later today. The astronauts will be powering up
and installing many of the rendezvous tools they will use later today
during the final phase of their approach to Mir.  Ryumin and Mir
Commander Talgat Musabayev will use VHF radio systems to communicate
with each other during the rendezvous activities.

  This morning, Precourt and Gorie will conduct another in a series of
engine firings designed to refine Discovery's approach to Mir.  Around
8:34 a.m. central time, they will perform a maneuver to place
Discovery on an intercepting course to Mir.  When the shuttle is 170
feet from the Mir, Discovery will stop for a 60-minute stationkeeping
period, resuming its final approach to Mir at 11:26 a.m. CDT.

  With his crew mates providing range rate and closure data obtained
from a variety of tools on board, Precourt will manually fly Discovery
up toward Mir with contact and capture between the two vehicles
expected about 11:58 a.m., the final linkup between an American
shuttle and the Russian space complex.  About an hour and a half
later, at 1:41 p.m.  Central time, the hatches between the two
vehicles should swing open, allowing Precourt and Musabayev to greet
each other.  Thomas will officially end his tenure as a Mir crewmember
at that point, beginning four days of docked operations between the
two crews.

  The next STS-91 status report will be issued at 6 p.m. CDT today.