WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Astronaut Terrence W. Wilcutt, on the Space Shuttle Atlantis' aft flight deck, takes pictures of Earth for study by Earth observations scientists at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Several components of the docked Russia's Mir Space Station can be seen in the background. 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; Wilcutt, pilot; John E. Blaha, Jerome (Jay) Apt, Thomas D. Akers and Carl E. Walz, all mission specialists. On flight day 4, the crew docked with Russia's 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 crewmembers Valery G. Korzun, commander, and Aleksandr Y. Kaleri, flight engineer.