STS-71 Day 1 Highlights

On Tuesday, June 27, 1995, 7 p.m. CDT, STS-71 MCC Status Report # 01 reports:

Atlantis first achieved an orbit with a high point of 158 nautical miles by 85 nautical miles, the lowest orbital altitude ever flown by a Space Shuttle, allowing the spacecraft to close the more than 7,000 nautical miles to Mir rapidly at first, at a rate of about 880 nautical miles per orbit. Three hours and thirty-nine minutes after launch, Atlantis fired both Orbital Maneuvering System engines for a little over two minutes to raise its orbit to an altitude of 210 nautical miles by 158 nautical miles, an engine firing called the NC-1 burn that has now slowed Atlantis' closing rate on the Mir.

The shuttle is now about 5,400 nautical miles from Mir, closing on the station by about 280 nautical miles with each one and a half-hour orbit of Earth. The next engine firing by Atlantis was not scheduled until early Wednesday morning, and all activities remain on target for a docking with Mir at about 8 a.m. Thursday.

Atlantis' crew -- Commander Hoot Gibson, Pilot Charlie Precourt, Mission Specialists Ellen Baker, Greg Harbaugh and Bonnie Dunbar, and Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin -- winded down their first day in orbit.

Go to STS-71 Flight Day 2 Highlights: