29 June 1995, 13:00:16 UTC

This view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis still connected to Russia’s Mir Space Station was photographed by the Mir-19 crew on July 4, 1995. Cosmonauts Anatoliy Y. Solovyev and Nikolai M. Budarin, Mir-19 Commander and Flight Engineer, respectively, temporarily undocked the Soyuz spacecraft from the cluster of Mir elements to perform a brief fly-around. They took pictures while the STS-71 crew, with Mir-18’s three crew members aboard, undocked Atlantis for the completion of this leg of the joint activities. Solovyev and Budarin had been taxied to the Mir Space Station by the STS-71 ascent trip of Atlantis. (NASA GPN-2000-001315)

29 June 1995. Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

This was the 100th manned U.S. space flight.

Atlantis‘ crew consisted of Spacecraft Commander Roger Lee (“Hoot”) Gibson, on his fifth and final space flight; Shuutle Pilot Charles Joseph Precourt; and five Mission Specialists: Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, Gregory Jordan Harbaugh, Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar, Anatoly Yakolvlevich Solovyev, and Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin.

Atlantis had launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, at 19:32:19 UTC, 27 June 1995.

Atlantis docked with Mir at 13:00:16 UTC on 29 June. It remained docked for 4 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes, 26 seconds.

Cosmonauts Solovyev and Budarin remained on board Mir, and when Atlantis returned to Earth it carried Genady Mikhailovich Strekalov, Vladamir Nikolayevich Dezhurov, and Norman Earl Thagard, each of whom had completed their assignments aboard Mir.

Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center Space Shuttle Landing Facility, 14:55:28 UTC, 7 July 1991. The total duration of Mission STS-71 was 9 days, 19 hours, 23 minutes, 9 seconds.

© 2024, Bryan R. Swopes

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