STS-71

Robert L. Gibson

• Birthday: 10/30/1946
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 02/03/1984
• Last Flight: 06/27/1995

Robert Lee "Hoot" Gibson is a former American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a r...

Charles J. Precourt

• Birthday: 06/29/1955
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 04/26/1993
• Last Flight: 06/02/1998

Charles Joseph Precourt is a retired NASA astronaut. His career in flight began at an early age, and spans his entire lifetim...

Ellen S. Baker

• Birthday: 04/27/1953
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 10/18/1989
• Last Flight: 06/27/1995

Ellen Louise Shulman Baker, M.D., M.P.H. is an American physician and a NASA astronaut. Baker serves as Chief of the Educatio...

Nikolai Budarin

• Birthday: 04/29/1963
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Russia
• First Flight: 06/27/1995
• Last Flight: 11/24/2002

Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin (Russian: Николай Михайлович Бударин) (born April 29, 1953 in Kirya, Chu...

Gregory Harbaugh

• Birthday: 04/15/1956
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 04/28/1991
• Last Flight: 02/11/1997

Gregory Jordan Harbaugh is a former NASA astronaut that spent 34 days in space through four Space Shuttle missions including ...

Anatoly Solovyev

• Birthday: 01/16/1948
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Russia
• First Flight: 06/07/1988
• Last Flight: 08/05/1997

Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev (Russian: Анатолий Яковлевич Соловьёв; born January 16, 1948 – altern...

Bonnie J. Dunbar

• Birthday: 03/03/1949
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: United States of America
• First Flight: 10/30/1985
• Last Flight: 01/23/1998

Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar is a former NASA astronaut. She retired from NASA in September 2005 then served as president and CEO of ...

Mission

STS-71

• Type: Human Exploration
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program and the first Space Shuttle docking to Russian space station Mir. It started on 27 June 1995 with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle delivered a relief crew of two cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin to the station and recovered Increment astronaut Norman Thagard. Atlantis returned to Earth on 7 July with a crew of eight. It was the first of seven straight missions to Mir flown by Atlantis.

Location

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Find the best place to watch the launch from Florida

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 208 rockets, including 207 orbital launch attempts. While Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 266 rocket launches.

The John F. Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of NASA's ten field centers. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for the Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs were carried out from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 and managed by KSC. Located on the east coast of Florida, KSC is adjacent to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

Rocket

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.

Learn more about the Space Shuttle