STS-84

STS-84 was a crewed spaceflight mission by Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' to the Mir space station.

Crew

Mission highlights

The STS-84 mission was the sixth Shuttle/ ''Mir'' docking mission and is part of the NASA/Mir program which consisted of nine Shuttle-Mir dockings and seven long duration flights of U.S. astronauts aboard the Russian space station. The prior Shuttle-Mir missions were STS-71, STS-74, STS-76, STS-79 and STS-81. The U.S. astronauts launched and landed on a Shuttle and served as ''Mir'' crew members while the Russian Mir crewmembers used their Soyuz vehicle for launch and landing. This series of missions expanded U.S. research on ''Mir'' by providing resupply materials for experiments to be performed aboard the station as well as returning experiment samples and data to Earth.

STS-84 involved the transfer of of water and logistics to and from the ''Mir''. During the docked phase, of water, of U.S. science equipment, of Russian logistics along with of miscellaneous material were transferred to ''Mir''. Returning to Earth aboard ''Atlantis'' were of U.S. science material, of Russian logistics, of ESA material and of miscellaneous material.

Sixth Shuttle-''Mir'' docking highlighted by transfer of fourth successive U.S. crew member to the Russian Space Station. U.S. astronaut C. Michael Foale exchanged places with Jerry Linenger, who arrived at ''Mir'' 15 January 1997 with the crew of Shuttle Mission STS-81. Linenger spent 123 days on ''Mir'' and just over 132 days in space from launch to landing, placing him second behind U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid for most time spent on-orbit by an American. Another milestone reached during his stay was one-year anniversary of continuous U.S. presence in space that began with Lucid's arrival at ''Mir'' 22 March 1996.

Other significant events during Linenger's stay included first U.S.-Russian space walk. On 29 April 1997 Linenger participated in five-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) with ''Mir'' 23 Commander Vasily Tsibliyev to attach a monitor to the outside of the station. The Optical Properties Monitor (OPM) was to remain on ''Mir'' for nine months to allow study of the effect of the space environment on optical properties, such as mirrors used in telescopes.

On 23 February, a fire broke out on the 11-year-old station. It caused minimal damage but required station's inhabitants to wear protective masks for about 36 hours until cabin air was cleaned. Besides Linenger, crew members aboard ''Mir'' at the time included two ''Mir'' 22 cosmonauts and a German cosmonaut, and two ''Mir'' 23 cosmonauts.

STS-84 docking with ''Mir'' occurred on 17 May at 02:33 UTC above the Adriatic Sea. Hatches between two spacecraft opened at 04:25 am, 17 May. Greetings exchanged between STS-84 crew and ''Mir'' 23 Commander Vasily Tsibliyev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and Linenger, followed by a safety briefing. Linenger and Foale officially traded places at 14:15 UTC.

Transfer of items to and from ''Mir'' proceeded smoothly and was completed ahead of schedule. One of the first items transferred to station was an Elektron oxygen-generating unit. Altogether about 249 items were moved between the two spacecraft, and about of water moved to ''Mir'', for a total of about of water, experiment samples, supplies and hardware.

The research program conducted by Foale featured 35 investigations total (33 on ''Mir'', two on STS-84, and another preflight/postflight) in six disciplines: advanced technology, Earth observations and remote sensing, fundamental biology, human life sciences, space station risk mitigation, and microgravity sciences. Twenty-eight of these were conducted during previous missions and were to be continued, repeated or completed during Foale's stay. Seven new experiments were planned in biological and crystal growth studies and materials processing.

Undocking occurred at 01:04 UTC on 22 May. Unlike prior dockings, no flyaround of the station by the orbiter was conducted, but the orbiter was stopped three times while backing away to collect data from a European sensor device designed to assist future rendezvous of a proposed European Space Agency resupply vehicle with the International Space Station.

Other activities conducted during the mission included investigations using the Biorack facility, located in the SPACEHAB Double Module in ''Atlantiss payload bay, a photo survey of ''Mir'' during docked operations, environmental air samplings and radiation monitoring.

Orbiter performance was normal from launch to landing. For the mission, ''Atlantis'' was equipped with a SpaceHab Double Module, and a Orbiter Docking System.

See also

*List of human spaceflights
* List of Space Shuttle missions
*Outline of space science

External links

NASA mission summary

{{Use American English, date=January 2014

STS-084
Spacecraft launched in 1997