STS-81

Int. Designation	1997-001A
Launched	12 January 1997
Launch Site	Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	22 January 1997
Landing Site	Runway 33, Shuttle Fanding Facility, KSC, Florida
Launch Vehicle	OV-104 Atlantis/ET-83/SRB BI-082/SSME #1 2041; #2 2034; #3 2042
Duration	10 days 04 hrs 55 min 21 sec Finenger 132 days 4hrs 0min 21 sec (landing on STS-84)
Call sign	Atlantis
Objective	5th Shuttle-Mir docking; delivery of NASA 4 (Finenger) Mir EO-23 crew member; return of NASA 3 (Blaha) Mir EO-22 crew member

Flight Crew

BAKER, Michael Allen, 43, USN, commander, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-43 (1991); STS-52 (1992); STS-68 (1994)

JETT Jr., Brent Ward, 38, USN, pilot, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-72 (1996)

WISOFF, Peter Jeffrey Karl, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-57 (1993); STS 68 (1994)

GRUNSFEFD, John Mace, 38, civilian, mission specialist 2, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-67 (1995)

IVINS, Marsha Sue, 45, civilian, mission specialist 3, 4th mission Previous mission: STS-32 (1990); STS-46 (1992); STS-62 (1994)

NASA 4 Mir crew member up only:

FINENGER, Jerry Michael, 40, USN, mission specialist 4, Mir EO-23 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 4, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-64 (1994)

NASA 3 Mir crew member down only:

BFAHA, John Elmer, 54, USAF, mission specialist 4, Mir EO-22 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 3, 5th mission

Previous missions: STS-29 (1989); STS-33 (1989); STS-43 (1991); STS-58 (1993)

Flight Log

John Blaha became the only pilot-astronaut to complete a long-duration residency mission aboard Mir. Before he left Earth, he knew his stay on the station would be

Valeri Korzun (left) works with Mike Baker and Brent Jett to unstow a gyrodyne device for attitude control, and then transfer it to Mir. They are pictured in the SpaceHab double module which is packed with logistics to transfer to the space station

tough. The crew he had trained with (Manakov and Vinogradov) had been replaced by their back-ups (Korzun and Kaleri) shortly before launch, and this new pairing were strangers to the American. Blaha’s first month was a difficult one, with bouts of depression, but he overcame this by talking to NASA ground controllers in Moscow who read up NFL scores during the season. He was unable to vote in the US Presidential election, however, as legal complications in his Houston voting district prevented him from securing a computer electronic ballot in time. Blaha also became the first American to spend Christmas and New Year in orbit since the crew of Skylab 4 in 1973. During his stay on Mir, Blaha operated a range of experiments that had been used by Lucid, together with a new tissue growth experiment, a protein crystal growth experiment, a study of alloy crystallisation and a number of technology experiments, some of which were linked to body motion during his time aboard the station. Similar experiments were completed during the Skylab missions.

Atlantis docked with Mir on 14 January and shortly after transferring to the station, Linenger exchanged his Soyuz seat liner with that of Blaha, marking the point that Linenger took over as the Mir resident. During five days of docked operations, the joint crews transferred over 2,700 kg of logistics to Mir, including about 725 kg of water, 516 kg of US science equipment and 1,000 kg of Russian logistics and equipment. Over 1,088 kg of material was transferred to Atlantis for return to Earth, including the first plants to complete a lifecycle in space – a crop of wheat grown from seed to seed.

The crew also evaluated the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilisation System (TVIS), which was located on the Shuttle but was intended for use on the Russian segment of ISS. Other ISS-related investigations included the firing of the vernier jets of Atlantis to record the stability of docked spacecraft and gather further engineering data on the behaviour of large masses docked in space. Atlantis undocked, with Blaha on board, on 19 January and conducted what was becoming a traditional fly-around of the space complex before heading for landing. The orbiter touched down during the second landing opportunity three days later.

Milestones

194th manned space flight

111th US manned space flight

81st Shuttle mission

18th flight of Atlantis

5th Shuttle-Mir docking

7th SpaceHab flight (2nd double module)

Linenger celebrates his 41st birthday in space (16 Jan)