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The race to catch up with the Russian Space Station Mir begins with the on-time liftoff of the Space Shuttle Atlantis from Launch Pad 39A at 4:54:49 a.m. EDT, Sept. 16. The 10- day flight of Atlantis on Mission STS-79 will be highlighted by the fourth docking between the U.S. Space Shuttle and Russian Space Station Mir and the first in a series of crew exchanges aboard the station. On board Atlantis for the uphill leg of the trip are: Commander William F. Readdy; Pilot Terrence W. Wilcutt; and Mission Specialists Jay Apt, Thomas D. Akers, Carl E. Walz and John E. Blaha. Blaha will exchange places on Mir with U.S. astronaut Shannon W. Lucid, who will return to Earth with the STS-79 flight crew after a record-setting stay on the Russian station. STS-79 is the second Shuttle- Mir mission to carry a SPACEHAB module on board and the first to carry a double module. The STS-79 mission is part of the NASA/Mir program which is now into the Phase 1B portion, consisting of nine Shuttle-Mir docking flights and seven long-duration flights of U.S. astronauts aboard the station between early 1996 and late 1998.