STS-71 preflight crew portrait

STS071-S-002 (5 March 1995) --- Crew members for the STS-71 mission and the related Mir missions assemble for a crew portrait at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). In front are, left to right, Vladimir N. Dezhurov, Robert L. Gibson and Anatoliy Y. Solovyev, mission commanders for Mir-18, STS-71 and Mir-19, respectively. On the back row are, left to right, Norman E. Thagard, Gennadiy M. Strekalov, Gregory J. Harbaugh, Ellen S. Baker, Charles J. Precourt, Bonnie J. Dunbar and Nikolai M. Budarin. In a precedent-setting flight, Thagard later this month will be launched as a guest researcher along with Dezhurov, commander, and Strekalov, flight engineer, to Russia's Mir Space Station for a three month mission, designated as Mir 18. Then in late spring, as the assignment of STS-71, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with the Russian Mir Space Station to pick up the Mir 18 crew and transfer cosmonauts Solovyev and Budarin to the station for the Mir 19 mission. The STS-71 crew members are Gibson, commander; Precourt, pilot; and Harbaugh, Baker and Dunbar mission specialists.