STS-79 and Mir 22 crew portrait

STS079-349-022 (16-26 Sept. 1996) --- The traditional inflight crew portrait, taken in Russia's Mir Space Station base block. Front row, left to right, Aleksandr Y. Kaleri, Jerome (Jay) Apt, John E. Blaha, William F. Readdy and Shannon W. Lucid. Back row, left to right, Thomas D. Akers, Carl E. Walz, Valeri G. Korzun and Terrence W. Wilcutt. This photograph is one of fifteen 35mm frames (along with four 70mm frames) of still photography documenting the activities of NASA's STS-79 mission, which began with a September 16, 1996, liftoff from Launch Pad 39A the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and ended with a landing at KSC on September 26, 1996. Onboard for the launch were astronauts Readdy, commander; Wilcutt, pilot; Blaha, Apt, Akers and Walz, all mission specialists. On flight day 4, the crew docked with the Mir Space Station. Lucid, who had spent six months aboard Mir, switched cosmonaut guest researcher roles with Blaha. The latter joined fellow Mir-22 crewmembers Korzun, commander, and Kaleri, flight engineer.