Shuttle docks with MirIn 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir for a mission which lasted until 4 Jul 1995 that included the exchange of Russian crew members. The docking tested a special module similar to one that was to be used to link shuttles with the international station when it was completed. For these five days, the space vehicles formed the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth. During this mission astronauts answered questions from school students over amateur radio, and performed life science experiments aboard the SpaceLab. The SpaceLab experiments were designed to understand how the Russian Space program combats the effects on the human body of the long-durations in space.[Image: photograph was taken by Nikolai Budarin from a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on 4 Jul 1995] |
