STS-84 Day 08 Highlights
On this eighth day of the STS-84 mission, the flight crew, Cmdr. Charles J. Precourt, Pilot Eileen M. Collins, Payload Cmdr, Jean-Francois Clervoy (ESA), Mission Specialists Edward T. Lu, Carlos I. Noriega, Elena V. Kondakova, Jerry M. Linenger (download), and C. Michael Foale (upload) sing 'The Cosmonauts' Song' to Mir-23 crew members Vasily Tsibliev, Alexander Lazutkin and astronaut Mike Foale, who is beginning his four-month research mission on Mir. Foale and his new crewmates played music as Atlantis departed following the joint phase of the flight. Atlantis' undocking from Mir was modified from previous joint missions in that a flyaround of the station for photographic purposes was not conducted. Instead, Pilot Eileen Collins guided Atlantis below the Mir after the two spacecraft completed their physical separation, stopping three times at distances of 90, 300 and 1,500 feet to collect data from a European sensor device designed to assist future rendezvous of a proposed European Space Agency resupply vehicle with the International Space Station. Once the data collection was completed, the shuttle took advantage of natural orbital mechanics to drift beneath and out in front of Mir.