ATLANTIS' SEVENTH MISSION TO MIR SET FOR SEPT. 25



September 12, 1997



Debbie Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1638)



Bruce Buckingham
Kennedy Space Center, FL
(Phone: 407/867-2468)



Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

<h4>Release: 97-199</h4> <h3>Atlantis' Seventh Mission to Mir Set For 
Sept. 25</h3> 

Space Shuttle Program managers today unanimously approved plans for a 
September 25 launch of the seventh shuttle mission to rendezvous and 
dock with Russia's Mir Space Station to deliver supplies and return 
Mike Foale from the outpost following his four month stay.



"Our review today shows that the processing and training teams have 
done an exceptional job in getting Atlantis and crew ready for this 
mission," said George Abbey, Director of the Johnson Space Center, 
who chaired the Flight Readiness Review at the launch site in 
Florida.



Astronaut Dave Wolf has completed training and is scheduled to replace 
Michael Foale for a four-month stay on Mir to continue the permanent 
U.S. presence on the station that began with Shannon Lucid on the 
STS-76 mission in 1996.



The launch window opens at 9:34 p.m. CDT and closes about 7 minutes 
later at 9:41 p.m. Following a nominal flight duration of 9 days, 20 
hours, 24 minutes, Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space 
Center, Florida at about 5:58 p.m. CDT, October 5.



In addition to Foale and Wolf, Atlantis' crew includes Commander Jim 
Wetherbee, Pilot Mike Bloomfield and Mission Specialists Scott 
Parazynski, Wendy Lawrence, Jean-Loup Chretien and Vladimir Titov. 
Parazynski and Titov will conduct a spacewalk to retrieve some 
science experiments from the outside of the station.



STS-86 will be Atlantis' 20th mission into space and the 87th shuttle 
flight in the program's history -end -

	
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