STS-81 Day 8 Highlights

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On Sunday, January 19, 1997, 7:00 a.m. CST, STS-81 MCC Status Report # 15 reports:

With all of their joint transfer activities complete, Atlantis' astronauts and the cosmonauts of the Mir Space Station bid farewell to one another following five days of docked operations in which more than three tons of food, water and supplies were moved back and forth between the two spacecraft.

Commander Mike Baker, Pilot Brent Jett and Mission Specialists Jeff Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins and John Blaha said goodbye to Mir 22 Commander Valery Korzun, Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri and the newest Mir crewmember, astronaut Jerry Linenger. The hatches on the two spacecraft were closed at 6:46 a.m. after completing a review of all of the items transferred since the two vehicles docked Tuesday night. Among the transfer items were about 1,600 pounds of water for use by the Mir crew over the next few months.

Prior to hatch closure, the astronauts and cosmonauts conducted a formal farewell ceremony in the Mir Core Module after fielding questions from Russian and U.S. reporters in a joint news conference.

Following final pressure checks to the docking systems on the Shuttle and the Mir, Atlantis will undock from the Mir tonight at 8:15. Jett will conduct a flyaround inspection of the Mir as Atlantis flies in a tail-forward attitude at a distance of about 400 feet. A final firing of Atlantis' maneuvering jets about two hours later will enable Atlantis to separate from Mir for the final time until the orbiter's return in May with astronaut Mike Foale, who will replace Linenger aboard the Russian outpost.

The nine crewmembers are scheduled to begin an abbreviated sleep period at 11:30 this morning and will be awakened at 5:27 this afternoon to begin final preparations for undocking.

On Sunday, January 19, 1997, 5:30 p.m. CST, STS-81 MCC Status Report # 16 reports:

The crews of the docked Atlantis-Mir complex were awakened at 5:27 p.m. CST to the song,."So Long, Farewell," from the musical "The Sound of Music"; and quickly began making final preparations for undocking, scheduled for 8:15 p.m. CST.

Commander Mike Baker, pilot Brent Jett and mission specialists Jeff Wisoff, John Grunsfeld and Marsha Ivins will be joined by John Blaha on their return to Earth. After four months aboard the Russian outpost, Blaha said farewell to Mir 22 Commander Valery Korzun, Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri and the newest Mir crewmember, astronaut Jerry Linenger, when the hatches on the two spacecraft closed at 6:46 a.m. today.

Atlantis will conduct a fly-around inspection of Mir after it undocks, flying in a tail-forward attitude at a distance of about 400 feet. Atlantis' maneuvering jets will be fired about two hours later, separating the multipurpose space truck from Mir. Alantis will return on the sixth Shuttle-Mir docking flight in May with Linenger's replacement, British-born astronaut Mike Foale.

After the undocking and flyaround are complete, the Atlantis astronauts will once again set up the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System (TVIS) to test its ability to keep astronaut exercise sessions from disturbing sensitive experiments on the International Space Station. Mission managers are keeping open the option of a mission extension day if required to glean all necessary data from the TVIS test. The crew has not been able to recover data from a previous test on Tuesday.

At 6:24 a.m. CST Monday, crew members will participate in an interview by the Internet magazine."Mungo Park," in which reporters will forward questions posed by on-line participants. A wealth of shuttle information can also be found on the NASA Shuttle Web at http://shuttle.nasa.gov.

The Atlantis-Mir complex continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 240 miles.

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