WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Astronaut Thomas D. Akers, in the Spacehab, goes over an inventory of supplies which will be transferred to the Russia's Mir Space Station. This photograph is one of fifteen 35mm frames (along with four 70mm frames) of still photography documenting the activities of NASA's STS-79 mission, which began with a September 16, 1996, liftoff from Launch Pad 39A the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and ended with a landing at KSC on September 26, 1996. Onboard for the launch were astronauts William F. Readdy, commander; Terrence W. Wilcutt, pilot; John E. Blaha, Jerome (Jay) Apt, Akers and Carl E. Walz, all mission specialists. On flight day 4, the crew docked with the Mir Space Station. Shannon W. Lucid, who had spent six months aboard Mir, switched cosmonaut guest researcher roles with Blaha. The latter joined fellow Mir-22 crew members Valery G. Korzun, commander, and Aleksandr Y. Kaleri, flight engineer.