STS-79 crew on flight deck during rendezvous with Mir

STS079-358-027 (16-26 September 1996) --- Astronaut William F. Readdy looks over a checklist at the commander's station on the Space Shuttle Atlantis' flight deck. Among his many other duties as mission commander, Readdy controlled the Orbiter during a series of maneuvers associated with the docking and undocking operations with Russia's Mir Space Station. 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; Terrence W. Wilcutt, pilot; John E. Blaha, Jerome (Jay) Apt, Thomas D. Akers and Carl E. Walz, all mission specialists. On flight day 4, the crew docked with Russia's Mir Space Station. Shannon W. Lucid, who had spent six months aboard Mir, switched cosmonaut guest researcher roles with Blaha. The latter joined fellow Mir-22 crewmembers Valeri G. Korzun, commander, and Aleksandr Y. Kaleri, flight engineer.