STS-81

STS-81 was Atlantis' January 1997 Shuttle-Mir docking and logistics mission, the fifth Space Shuttle docking with Mir and the second U.S. crew exchange of the Shuttle-Mir program. Michael Baker commanded the mission, Brent Jett served as pilot, and Peter Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins, Jerry Linenger, and John Blaha served as mission specialists across the launch and landing phases. Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B on January 12, docked with Mir on January 15, and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility on January 22. The mission exchanged long-duration U.S. crew members: Jerry Linenger launched on Atlantis to begin his Mir increment, while John Blaha returned after 118 days aboard the Russian station. The docked crews transferred nearly 6,000 pounds of food, water, experiment hardware, samples, equipment, and other logistics to Mir and returned about 2,400 pounds to Earth. Returned research included wheat that completed a seed-to-seed life cycle in space, a first for plants grown in space.