STS-81 Day 6 Highlights

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On Friday, January 17, 1997, 6:00 a.m. CST, STS-81 MCC Status Report # 11 reports:

Atlantis' astronauts and the cosmonauts of the Mir Space Station continued to transfer hundreds of pounds of food, water and supplies between each other's spacecraft today in the third day of joint docked operations for the nine crewmembers.

More than two days after Atlantis and the Mir linked together in orbit, astronaut Marsha Ivins worked with Pilot Brent Jett and Mir 22 Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri to haul more bags of water to the Russian complex and additional logistical supplies for U.S. astronaut Jerry Linenger's four-month research flight aboard Mir. Earlier this morning, flight controllers reported that more than 1000 pounds of water had been transferred to the Mir's water tanks.

Linenger spent several hours continuing to familiarize himself with his new orbital home, unpacking experiment hardware and helping astronaut John Blaha transfer biomedical samples and other experiment results back to Atlantis for Blaha's trip back to Earth with his shuttle crewmates next week. Blaha is wrapping up his own four-month tour of duty in space.

Commander Mike Baker joined Jett this morning in firing Atlantis' small vernier jet thrusters in an experiment to gather engineering data for the International Space Station. The jet firings were part of a structural dynamics test to collect information on the integrity of the mate between two orbiting space vehicles and the effect of the firings on the Mir's solar arrays.

Blaha and Linenger neared the end of their workday by stowing wheat plants grown in the Mir's Greenhouse experiment for their return to Earth. New seeds have been planted in the Greenhouse for cultivation and harvesting during Linenger's stay aboard the Mir.

Several astronauts and cosmonauts will be interviewed by a pair of Detroit radio stations shortly after 7:30 a.m. with the nine crewmembers scheduled to begin their sleep period about four hours later. Crew wakeup is scheduled for 7:27 p.m.

The Atlantis-Mir space complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 240 statute miles with no major systems problems reported.

On Friday, January 17, 1997, 6:00 p.m. CST, STS-81 MCC Status Report # 12 reports:

Astronauts and cosmonauts on board the Atlantis-Mir space station complex so far have completed 86 percent of the planned transfer of items, moving almost 6,000 pounds of supplies, experiment equipment and samples between the two vehicles, and another 1,100 pounds of water for use on the Mir space station after Atlantis undocks.

The joint crew will continue the transfer efforts when it awakens at 7:27 p.m. CST today to begin the third full day of docked operations.

Commander Mike Baker and Pilot Brent Jett today will power down a number of non-essential electrical systems aboard Atlantis in an effort to reduce consumption of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen stores and allow for the possibility of a one-day extension of the flight. Mission managers will meet in Houston on Saturday to consider the option of adding another day of post-undocking operations for the Atlantis crew.

The possibility of an extension began being discussed Friday after scientists associated with the Treadmill Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS) discovered that the data collected Jan. 13 had not been stored on its laptop computer. The treadmill is designed for use in the Russian Service Module of the International Space Station. The tests are designed to evaluate the restraint system, motorization, running surface stability, and effectiveness in reducing disturbances to the microgravity environment during exercise.

Early Friday, one of three inertial measurement units which provide navigation information to the shuttles general purpose computers was placed in standby mode after its readings showed significant drifting. The IMU will be brought out of standby for use during Atlantis' landing.

In addition to continuing the transfer of items to and from the Russian space station, the joint crew will continue work with experiments on Mir and in the double SPACEHAB module in Atlantis payload bay.

The Atlantis-Mir space complex is orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 240 statute miles.

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