STS-86 Launch
In this photo, the Space Shuttle Atlantis blazes through the night sky to begin the STS-86 mission, slated to be the seventh of nine planned dockings of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. Liftoff on September 25 from Launch Pad 39A was at 10:34 p.m. EDT, within seconds of the preferred time, during a six minute, 45 second launch window. The 10 day flight included the transfer of the sixth U.S. astronaut to live and work aboard the Mir. After the docking, STS-86 Mission Specialist David A. Wolf became a member of the Mir 24 crew, replacing astronaut C. Michael Foale, who returned to Earth aboard Atlantis with the remainder of the STS-86 crew. Foale had been on the Russian Space Station since mid May. Wolf was scheduled to remain there about four months. Besides Wolf (embarking to Mir) and Foale (returning), the STS-86 crew included Commander James D. Wetherbee, Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence, Scott E. Parazynski, Vladimir Georgievich Titov of the Russian Space Agency, and Jean-Loup J.M. Chretien of the French Space Agency, CNES. Other primary objectives of the mission were a spacewalk by Parazynski and Titov, and the exchange of about 3.5 tons of science/logistical equipment and supplies between Atlantis and the Mir.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 97PC-1432
Date: September 25, 1997
STS-86 Launch
In this photo, the Space Shuttle Atlantis blazes through the night sky to begin the STS-86 mission, slated to be the seventh of nine planned dockings of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. Liftoff on September 25 from Launch Pad 39A was at 10:34 p.m. EDT, within seconds of the preferred time, during a six minute, 45 second launch window. The 10 day flight included the transfer of the sixth U.S. astronaut to live and work aboard the Mir. After the docking, STS-86 Mission Specialist David A. Wolf became a member of the Mir 24 crew, replacing astronaut C. Michael Foale, who returned to Earth aboard Atlantis with the remainder of the STS-86 crew. Foale had been on the Russian Space Station since mid May. Wolf was scheduled to remain there about four months. Besides Wolf (embarking to Mir) and Foale (returning), the STS-86 crew included Commander James D. Wetherbee, Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence, Scott E. Parazynski, Vladimir Georgievich Titov of the Russian Space Agency, and Jean-Loup J.M. Chretien of the French Space Agency, CNES. Other primary objectives of the mission were a spacewalk by Parazynski and Titov, and the exchange of about 3.5 tons of science/logistical equipment and supplies between Atlantis and the Mir.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 97PC-1432
Date: September 25, 1997