STS-86

STS-86 was Atlantis's seventh Shuttle-Mir docking mission and the fourth Shuttle-Mir flight to exchange a U.S. long-duration crewmember. Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center on September 26, 1997 UTC with James Wetherbee, Michael Bloomfield, Vladimir Titov, Scott Parazynski, Jean-Loup Chretien, Wendy Lawrence, and David Wolf. After docking with Mir, Wolf joined the Mir 24 crew and Michael Foale transferred to Atlantis for the return to Earth after his long stay aboard the station. The mission delivered logistics, water, experiment hardware, batteries, air supplies, and a new attitude-control computer to Mir, then returned experiment samples and equipment to Earth. During docked operations Scott Parazynski and Vladimir Titov performed the first joint U.S.-Russian EVA staged from a Shuttle, retrieving Mir Environmental Effects Payloads, working with a Solar Array Cap for future Spektr repair work, and testing SAFER-related equipment. Atlantis undocked on October 3, flew around Mir for inspection, and landed at Kennedy on October 6, 1997.