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ArchivesText SizeSTS-81 Mission: Fifth Shuttle-Mir Docking
Space Shuttle: Atlantis
Launch Pad: 39B 
Launched: January 12, 1997, 4:27:23 a.m. EST
Landing Site: Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing: January 22, 1997, 9:22:44 a.m. EST
Runway: 33
Rollout Distance: 9,350 feet
Rollout Time: 69 seconds
Revolution: 160
Mission Duration: 10 days, 4 hours, 55 minutes, 21 seconds
Orbit Altitude: 184 statute miles
Orbit Inclination: 51.60 degrees
Miles Traveled: 4.1 million 

Crew Members

                    

Image above: STS-81 Crew photo with Commander Michael A. Baker, Pilot Brent W. 
Jett, Jr., Mission Specialists John M. Grunsfeld, Marsha S. Ivins, Peter J. 
Wisoff and Jerry M. Linenger. Image Credit: NASA 

Mission Highlights

 The first shuttle flight of 1997 which was highlighted by the return of U.S. 
astronaut John Blaha to Earth after 118-day stay aboard the Russian Space 
Station Mir and the largest transfer to date of logistics between the two 
spacecraft. Atlantis also returned carrying the first plants to complete a life 
cycle in space -- a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed. This fifth of nine 
planned dockings continued Phase 1B of the NASA/Russian Space Agency cooperative 
effort, with Linenger becoming the third U.S. astronaut in succession to live on 
Mir. Same payload configuration flown on previous docking flight -- featuring 
SPACEHAB Double module -- flown again.

Blaha joined Mir 22 crew of Commander Valeri Korzun and Flight Engineer 
Aleksandr Kaleri on Sept. 19, 1996, when he arrived there with the crew of 
STS-79. Linenger was to work with the Mir 22 crew until the arrival in February 
of the Mir 23 crew of Commander Vasili Tsibliev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr 
Lazutkin and German researcher Reinhold Ewald. Ewald was to return to Earth with 
the Mir 22 cosmonauts after a brief stay on the station. Astronaut Michael Foale 
will replace Linenger on Mir when the STS-84 mission arrives in May 1997.

Docking occurred at 10:55 p.m. EST, Jan. 14, followed by hatch opening at 12:57 
a.m., Jan. 15. Linenger officially traded places at 4:45 a.m. with Blaha who 
spent 118 days on the station and 128 days total on-orbit. During five days of 
mated operations, crews transferred nearly 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms) of 
logistics to Mir, including around 1,600 pounds of water; around 1,138 pounds of 
U.S. science equipment; and 2,206 pounds of Russian logistical equipment. About 
2,400 pounds of materials returned with Atlantis from Mir.

Crew also tested on the shuttle the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and 
Stabilization System (TVIS), designed for use in the Russian Service Module of 
the International Space Station. Another activity related to International Space 
Station involved firing the orbiter's small vernier jet thrusters during mated 
operations to gather engineering data. Undocking occurred at 9:15 p.m. EST, Jan. 
19, followed by flyaround of Mir.

No significant in-flight anomalies experienced with orbiter.

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