STS-86 Day 03 Highlights

On this third day of the STS-86 mission, the flight crew, Cmdr. James D. Wetherbee, Jr., Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, Mission Specialists Scott E. Parazynski, Jean-Loup Chretien, Vladimir G. Titov, Wendy B. Lawrence and David A. Wolf conduct a series of engine firings that are designed to refine Atlantis' approach to Mir. With his crewmates providing range rate and closure data obtained from a variety of tools on board, Wetherbee manually flys Atlantis up toward Mir. After docking, the hatches between the two vehicles are swung open allowing Wetherbee and Mir Commander Anatoly Solovyev to greet each other in the airlock. Wetherbee hands Solovyev a new computer for the Mir which was brought into orbit by Atlantis for installation following the docking phase of the mission. The ten crewmembers spend a few minutes greeting one another at the start of their joint work which will involve the transfer of some four tons of supplies and water from Atlantis to the Mir.