STS-76

**STS-76**
Organization	NASA-Office of Space Flight (United States)
Mission type	Human Crew
Launch date	March 22, 1996
Launch vehicle	Space Shuttle
Launch site	Cape Canaveral, United States
COSPAR ID	1996-018A
Inclination	51.6 degrees
Experiments	Here
Alternate Names	23831
Additional Information	Here
Data Collection	Here
Payload Mass Up	6753 kg
Payload Mass Down	5480.91 kg
Orbiter	Atlantis
Lift Off Mass	2,049,774.09 kg
Orbiter Weight at Liftoff	111,975.00 kg
Orbiter Weight at Landing	95,598.18 kg
Landed	Concrete runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Orbits of Earth	145
Orbital Altitude	213 nautical miles (245 statute miles)

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[edit] Crew

Commander: Kevin P. Chilton
Pilot: Richard A. Searfoss
- Payload Commander:
- Mission Specialist 1: Shannon W. Lucid - up only
- Mission Specialist 2: Linda M. Godwin
- Mission Specialist 3: Michael R. "Rich" Clifford
- Mission Specialist 4: Ronald M. Sega
- Mission Specialist 5:
- Payload Specialist 1:
- Payload Specialist 2:

ISS/Mir Crew Transport

[edit] Mission

STS 76 was a US shuttle mission launched from Cape Canaveral. The primary mission objective was the third docking between the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Space Station Mir. It included a crew transfer, an extravehicular activity (EVA), logistics operations and scientific research. Rendezvous and docking with Mir was scheduled to occur on flight day three using the same approach as previously used during STS-74. Docking occured between the Orbiter Docking System in the forward area of Atlantis' payload bay and the Docking Module installed during STS-74 on Mir's Kristall module docking port. The mission also featured a SPACEHAB module, middeck experiments, a Get Away Special (GAS) canister and a 6-hour EVA. Over 1,900 pounds (862 kilograms) of equipment are being transfered from Atlantis to Mir including a gyrodyne, transformer, batteries, food, water, film and clothing. Planned Experiments included the Mir Electric Field Characterization (MEFC) experiment, numerious European Space Agency's (ESA) Biorack life sciences experiments, the Queen's University Experiment in Liquid Diffusion (QUELD) experiment, the Optizone Liquid Phase Sintering Experiment (OLIPSE) and a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Get Away Special (GAS) payload Trapped Ions in Space (TRIS) experiment. TRIS measured low-energy particle radiation in the inner magnetosphere. Another experiment conducted on Mir during STS-76 was the Mir Wireless Network Experiment (WNE) which was launched on STS-74 in November 1995. It tested the first wireless client-server network in the space environment. The mission also included KidSat, a prototype of Earth viewing cameras and instruments that allows students in grades Kindergarden to Grade 12 (K-12) to see and direct the capture of pictures from space. Mission Specialists Godwin and Clifford perform a six-hour spacewalk on flight day six. They attached four experiments, known collectively as the Mir Environmental Effects Payload MEEP, onto handrails located on the Mir Docking Module. These experiments include the Polished Plate Micrometeoroid Debris (PPMD) experiment, the Orbital Debris Collector (ODC) experiment, and the Passive Optical Samples (POSA) I and II experiments.

[edit] EVA

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) conducted by Linda Godwin and Rich Clifford, 6 hours, 2 minutes. Godwin and Clifford attached four experiments, known collectively as MEEP, onto handrails located on Mir's docking module. They also detached a television camera from the outside of the Mir docking module to return it to Earth, and evaluated a variety of new spacewalking tools capable of being used on both the U.S. and Russian spacecraft.

[edit] Payload

Shuttle-Mir Mission 3; SPACEHAB/Mir 03; Kid-Sat; Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II, Configuration M; RME 1304 - Mir/Environmental Effects Payload (MEEP); orbiter docking system; RME 1315 - Trapped Ions in Space Experiment (TRIS); Extravehicular Activity Development Flight Test (EDFT) 04

Mission patch: