For Release: June 19, 1995

Steve Roy
Office of Media Services
(205) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 95-40N

HISTORIC U.S.-RUSSIAN SPACE LINK-UP MISSION TO INCLUDE MARSHALL PROTEIN CRYSTAL GROWTH EXPERIMENT

The world's two greatest spacefaring nations will again meet in Earth orbit this month when the U. S. Space Shuttle Atlantis docks to the Russian Mir Space Station. The Atlantis-Mir link-up and docking are scheduled for the fourth day of the mission. The flight of Atlantis also will mark America's 100th human space mission.

Atlantis is currently scheduled to be launched Friday, June 23, at approximately 5:08 p.m. EDT and to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on July 4 at 12:37 p.m. EDT, after a nearly 11-day flight.

Joint U. S.-Russian experiments in seven different medical and scientific disciplines will be conducted after docking. Of the 28 experiments being conducted as part of the joint U.S.-Russian cooperative effort, 15 will be performed as part of the STS-71 mission.

STS-71 will carry several hundred protein samples, frozen in a thermos-bottle-like vacuum jacket or dewar, to the Mir space station. After the samples thaw, the proteins will crystallize and grow until the experiment samples are retrieved from the Mir during STS-74 in November.

The months-long growing time aboard Mir should produce large protein crystals of sufficient size and quality to compare with corresponding crystals grown on Earth. The experiment is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center's Biotechnology Office.

The mission is the first of seven planned Space Shuttle-Mir Space Station link-ups between 1995 and 1997, including rendezvous, docking and crew transfers, which will pave the way for assembly of the international Space Station beginning in November 1997.