STS-84

Int. Designation	1997-023A
Launched	15 May 1997
Launch Site	Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landed	24 May 1997
Landing Site	Runway 33, Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC, Florida
Launch Vehicle	OV-104 Atlantis/ET-85/SRB BI-087/SSME #1 2032; #2 2031; #3 2029
Duration	9 days 5 hrs 19 min 56 sec Foale 144 days 13hrs 47 min 21 sec (landing on STS-86)
Call sign	Atlantis
Objective	6th Shuttle-Mir docking; delivery of NASA 5 Mir EO-24 crew member; return of NASA 4 Mir EO-23 crew member

Flight Crew

PRECOURT, Charles Joseph, 41, USAF, commander, 3rd mission Previous missions: STS-55 (1993); STS-71 (1995)

COLLINS, Eileen Marie, 40, USAF, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-63 (1995)

CLERVOY, Jean-Francois Andre, 38, civilian, mission specialist 1, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-66 (1994)

NORIEGA, Carlos Ismael, 37, USMC, mission specialist 2 LU, Edward Tsang, 33, civilian, mission specialist 3

KONDAKOVA, Yelena Vladimirovna, 40, civilian, Russian mission specialist 4, 2nd mission

Previous mission: Soyuz TM20 (1994)

NASA 5 Mir resident crewmember up only:

FOALE, Colin Michael, 40, civilian, mission specialist 5, Mir EO-24 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 5, 4th mission Previous missions: STS-45 (1992); STS-56 (1993); STS-63 (1995)

NASA 4 Mir resident crewmember down only:

LINENGER, Jerry Michael, 41, USN, mission specialist 5, Mir EO-23 cosmonaut researcher, NASA board engineer 4, 2nd mission Previous mission: STS-64 (1994)

Flight Log

Atlantis docked with Mir on 16 May, bringing the next American Mir resident crew member (Mike Foale) to begin his residency. The formal hand-over between Foale

Change of shift on Mir. Jerry Linenger (right) briefs Mike Foale in preparation for the latter’s stay on Mir. The photo was taken after Foale moved to the Mir resident crew and Linenger became part of the STS-84 crew, as evidenced by the uniforms they wear. Part of the briefing would have been details on the fire Linenger experienced in February. What no one could have foreseen was the events that Foale was to endure over the next few months

and Linenger occurred the following day. Linenger had spent 123 days on board the station and by the end of his mission, he had become the second most experienced American astronaut, behind Shannon Lucid. During his stay on board the station, Linenger sent regular emails to his family that were posted on the NASA website and later became the focus of the book Letters from Mir. He also wrote of his experiences in the book Off the Planet.

During the docked phase of the STS-84 mission, the crew transferred approxi­mately 3,400 kg of logistics and supplies to the station, of which about 450 kg was water. During his stay on Mir, Foale had a research programme of 36 investigations (33 on Mir, two on STS-84 and another which included pre- and post-flight par­ticipation). These were shared among six disciplines: advanced technology, Earth observations and remote sensing, fundamental biology, human life sciences, space station risk mitigation, and microgravity sciences. Of these experiments, 28 had been performed during earlier missions, and would be continued, repeated or completed by Foale. Seven new experiments were concerned with materials processing, biology, and crystal growth studies. While Atlantis was still docked to Mir, the crew utilised the Biorack facility located in the SpaceHab double module. In addition, they took environmental air samples, continued to monitor radiation levels and photo – documented the exterior of the station through the windows.

On 21 May, Atlantis undocked from Mir with Jerry Linenger on board. There was no fly-around of Mir on this flight, but the orbiter was halted three times as it backed away from the station, allowing a European sensing device to be evaluated. The data would help in the design of rendezvous systems for the proposed Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the unmanned re-supply craft being developed by ESA for the ISS programme. The first landing opportunity for STS-84 on 24 May was waived off due to low clouds around the SLF, but the weather cleared sufficiently to allow a landing on the second opportunity.

Milestones

198th manned space flight

114th US manned space flight

84th Shuttle mission

19th flight of Atlantis

6th Shuttle-Mir docking

8th SpaceHab mission (3rd double module)