STS-79

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  24324 / 96057A Launch date - time  16 Sep 1996 - 08:54:49 UT Launch site  KSC, LC39A Launch vehicle  Space Shuttle Orbiter  Atlantis #17 (OV-104) Primary payload  Spacehab SH-06 Mass (kg)   Flight Crew  Readdy, Wilcutt, Apt Akers, Walz, Blaha Docking date - time  19 Sep 1996 - 03:20 UT Target spacecraft/port  Mir/ Earth orbit on :    - Perigee / Apogee  368 / 386 km    - Inclination  51.7°    - Period  92.1 min Undocking date - time  24 Sep 1996 - 01:33 UT Landing date - time  26 Sep 1996 - 12:13:20 UT Landing location  KSC, Runway 15 Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  10d 03h 19m Nbr orbits  160 Landing crew  Readdy, Wilcutt, Apt, Akers, Walz, Lucid  (crew STS-79 & STS-76)

Crew

Backup for Blaha J.

Mission details:

• Atlantis was launched on mission STS-79 at 0854:49 UTC on Sept 16, 1996.
• It's the fourth docking with MIR space station; common mission for four days; partly crew exchange with MIR resident crew (Shannon Lucid returned to Earth, Blaha remained on MIR); supplies and equipment were also transferred between the MIR and the Shuttle including an IMAX-camera.
• The replaced RSRM-56 solid rocket boosters separated at 08:57 UT. MECO (Main Engine Cutoff) came at 09:03 UT, followed by external tank ET-81 separation with Atlantis in a 82 x 296 km x 51.6 deg orbit. The OMS 2 burn to raise orbit to 157 x 293 km was carried out at 09:37 GMT, and the payload bay doors were opened at 10:15 UT.
• On Sept 19 Atlantis docked with the Mir complex. The crew reported 'tally ho' (visual contact) at 01:07 UT, after the terminal burn at 00:33 UT. By 01:39 they were 3 km apart; twenty minutes later that distance had dropped to 300 m. The crew closed in to 10 meters at 03:03 UT, and carried out station-keeping at that distance for a few minutes, before closing in again for docking at 03:13 UT. The docking rings retracted and brought the two vehicles together for `hard dock' at 03:20 UT. At 05:40 the hatch was opened opened and Lucid, Korzun and Kaleri were able to greet Blaha, Readdy, Wilcutt, Akers, Apt and Walz.
• Aboard Atlantis in the payload bay were the Orbiter Docking System, the modified Long Tunnel, and the Spacehab Double Module, containing supplies for the Mir. Astronaut John Blaha relieved Shannon Lucid as NASA resident on the complex.
• Atlantis undocked from the Mir complex on September 24 at 01:33 UT. Valeri Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri and John Blaha remain on Mir. On September 26 Atlantis closed its payload bay doors, and at 11:06 UT fired its OMS engines for a three minute long deorbit burn. After entry interface at 11:42 UT the spaceship flew across Canada and the US for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center′s Runway 15 at 12:13 UT, completing Shannon Lucid′s record breaking 188 day 4 hr 0 min flight.
• Unexpected erosion was found in the nozzle of 360T056B, STS-79′s right hand SRB, but it is not clear what effect this will have on the next launch scheduled for Nov 08.

STS-79/Atlantis Rolls over from OPF to VAB. Credit: NASA