WEATHERBEE TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL CREW ON SEVENTH SHUTTLE/MIR MISSION

Mon, 9 Dec 1996 09:59:28 -0500 (EST)
Source: NASANews@hq.nasa.gov

   Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC                 December 6, 1996
(Phone:  202/358-1778)
Sender: owner-press-release
Precedence: bulk

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  281/483-5111)

RELEASE:  96-252

WETHERBEE TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL CREW ON SEVENTH SHUTTLE/MIR MISSION 

    Astronaut James D. Wetherbee (Capt., USN) will command an 
international crew on STS-86, the seventh of nine planned 
missions to dock the Space Shuttle with Russia's Mir space 
station. STS-86 is targeted for a September 1997 launch.

    Joining Wetherbee on Atlantis' flight deck will be Pilot 
Mike Bloomfield (Major, USAF), a member of the 1995 astronaut 
class.  Mission Specialists are Scott Parazynski, MD, Vladimir 
Titov (Col., Russian Air Force) of the Russian Space Agency and 
Jean-Loup Chretien (Brigadier-General, French Air Force) of the 
French Space Agency, CNES. 

    Previously named to the crew is Wendy Lawrence (Cmdr., 
USN), who will remain on Mir for a four-month research mission 
as a member of the Mir 23 and 24 crews. Lawrence will replace 
astronaut Mike Foale who will end his four-month stay as part 
of the Mir 23 crew and return to Earth on board Atlantis as a 
member of the STS-86 crew. 

    STS-86 reunites three members of the STS-63 crew which 
performed the first rendezvous of an American spacecraft with 
Mir in 1995.  Wetherbee, Titov and Foale were members of 
Discovery's mission in which the Shuttle approached to within 
37 feet (ten meters) of Mir in a dress rehearsal for the first 
Shuttle/Mir docking.

    Highlights of the 9-day mission include five days of docked 
operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew 
members Foale and Lawrence to continue a permanent American 
presence of the Russia complex.  A spacewalk is scheduled to 
retrieve the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were 
attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich 
Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment 
surrounding the Mir space station. Atlantis will carry the 
SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and 
supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and 
specimens to Earth.

    "We're very pleased with the selection of Jim Wetherbee to 
command this crew," said David C. Leestma, Director, Flight 
Crew Operations.  "His involvement with the entire human space 
flight programs and his flight experience provide him with an 
excellent background for this challenging mission."

    Wetherbee, who is currently Deputy Director of Johnson 
Space Center, will be making his fourth space flight on STS-86. 
He flew as pilot on STS-32 in 1990 and was the commander for 
STS-52 in 1992 and STS-63 in 1995.

    Bloomfield will be making his first space flight during 
STS-86 following the successful completion of more than a year 
of training and technical assignments to prepare for 
assignments to a Shuttle mission. STS-86 makes the second space 
flight for Parazynski, who previously few on STS-66 in 1994.

    Titov is a veteran Russian cosmonaut with three space 
flights and more than one year of accumulated time spent in 
space. During a previous flight on Mir, Titov spent a full year 
in orbit, at that time a human endurance record. He will become 
the first Russian cosmonaut to fly more than one mission on the 
Space Shuttle. 

    Chretien also is a veteran space flyer having spent more 
than 32 days in space on two flights on Russian space stations. 
He was a member of the 1982 Salyut 7 crew, spending more than 
one week in orbit. He flew again as a member of a Mir crew in 
1988, spending more than three weeks in space. STS-86 will be 
Chretien+s third space flight, his first on the Space Shuttle.

    For complete biographical information on the STS-86 crew, 
or any astronaut, see the NASA Internet biography home page at 
URL:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

                       -end-


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