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. NASA lists Michael Baker as commander, Brent Jett as pilot, and Peter Wisoff, John Grunsfeld, Marsha Ivins, Jerry Linenger, and John Blaha 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 to Earth after more than 100 days aboard the Russian station. The docked crews transferred food, water, experiment hardware, samples, equipment, and other logistics between Atlantis, SPACEHAB, and Mir, continuing the operational experience that fed into later International Space Station assembly and operations. STS-81 also returned plant-growth research in which wheat had completed a seed-to-seed life cycle in space, along with other Shuttle-Mir science and logistics payloads. Creating this mission adds the missing launch-side link for Linenger, the return-side link for Blaha, and Marsha Ivins' fourth Shuttle mission.