MISSION CONTROL CENTER STATUS REPORT # 21
STS-91
Friday, June 12, 1998 - 1:15 p.m. CDT

  The shuttle Discovery glided out of a cloud-speckled sky and rolled
to a smooth landing at the Kennedy Space Center to wrap up its 10-day,
3.8-million-mile mission to pick up the final U.S.  astronaut from the
Russian Mir Space Station.

  Commander Charlie Precourt piloted Discovery to an on-time touchdown
on runway 1-5 at the Florida spaceport's 3-mile-long landing strip at
1:00 p.m. Central time.  Astronaut Andy Thomas sat in Discovery's
middeck in a special recumbent seat to help ease his initial exposure
to gravity.  Thomas returned to Earth after 141 days in space, 130 of
which were served as a crewmember aboard Mir. He traveled about 56.4
million miles during his time in space.

  Thomas' return to Earth marks the end of a consecutive 812-day
U.S. presence in space and 802 consecutive days on the Mir by a
U.S. astronaut.  Since 1995, seven U.S. astronauts - Norm Thagard,
Shannon Lucid, John Blaha, Jerry Linenger, Mike Foal, David Wolf and
Andy Thomas - spent a total of 907 days as Mir crew members.

  Left behind on the orbiting Russian outpost when Discovery undocked
on June 8 were Mir 25 Commander Talgat Musabayev and Flight Engineer
Nikolai Budarin.  They are scheduled to return to Earth next August,
to be replaced by another cosmonaut team.

  At the Kennedy Space Center, Precourt and Thomas, along with
crewmates Pilot Dom Gorie and Mission Specialists Franklin Chang-Diaz,
Wendy Lawrence, Janet Kavandi and Valery Ryumin, were to return to
crew quarters where Thomas will begin a series of post-flight medical
tests.  He then faces a 45-day regimen of physical rehabilitation
following his long stay in weightlessness.

  The astronauts are scheduled to spend the night at the Kennedy Space
Center before flying back to Houston Saturday evening. Crew return at
Ellington Field is scheduled for about 8 p.m.  Central time Saturday.