Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC                 December 6, 1996
(Phone:  202/358-1778)
Sender: owner-press-release
Precedence: bulk

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone:  281/483-5111)

RELEASE:  96-252

WETHERBEE TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL CREW ON SEVENTH SHUTTLE/MIR MISSION

    Astronaut James D. Wetherbee (Capt., USN) will command an
international crew on STS-86, the seventh of nine planned
missions to dock the Space Shuttle with Russia's Mir space
station. STS-86 is targeted for a September 1997 launch.

    Joining Wetherbee on Atlantis' flight deck will be Pilot
Mike Bloomfield (Major, USAF), a member of the 1995 astronaut
class.  Mission Specialists are Scott Parazynski, MD, Vladimir
Titov (Col., Russian Air Force) of the Russian Space Agency and
Jean-Loup Chretien (Brigadier-General, French Air Force) of the
French Space Agency, CNES.

    Previously named to the crew is Wendy Lawrence (Cmdr.,
USN), who will remain on Mir for a four-month research mission
as a member of the Mir 23 and 24 crews. Lawrence will replace
astronaut Mike Foale who will end his four-month stay as part
of the Mir 23 crew and return to Earth on board Atlantis as a
member of the STS-86 crew.

    STS-86 reunites three members of the STS-63 crew which
performed the first rendezvous of an American spacecraft with
Mir in 1995.  Wetherbee, Titov and Foale were members of
Discovery's mission in which the Shuttle approached to within
37 feet (ten meters) of Mir in a dress rehearsal for the first
Shuttle/Mir docking.

    Highlights of the 9-day mission include five days of docked
operations between Atlantis and Mir and the exchange of crew
members Foale and Lawrence to continue a permanent American
presence of the Russia complex.  A spacewalk is scheduled to
retrieve the four Mir Environmental Effects Payloads which were
attached to the Mir's docking module by Linda Godwin and Rich
Clifford during STS-76 to characterize the environment
surrounding the Mir space station. Atlantis will carry the
SPACEHAB double module to support the transfer of logistics and
supplies for Mir and the return of experiment hardware and
specimens to Earth.

    "We're very pleased with the selection of Jim Wetherbee to
command this crew," said David C. Leestma, Director, Flight
Crew Operations.  "His involvement with the entire human space
flight programs and his flight experience provide him with an
excellent background for this challenging mission."

    Wetherbee, who is currently Deputy Director of Johnson
Space Center, will be making his fourth space flight on STS-86.
He flew as pilot on STS-32 in 1990 and was the commander for
STS-52 in 1992 and STS-63 in 1995.

    Bloomfield will be making his first space flight during
STS-86 following the successful completion of more than a year
of training and technical assignments to prepare for
assignments to a Shuttle mission. STS-86 makes the second space
flight for Parazynski, who previously few on STS-66 in 1994.

    Titov is a veteran Russian cosmonaut with three space
flights and more than one year of accumulated time spent in
space. During a previous flight on Mir, Titov spent a full year
in orbit, at that time a human endurance record. He will become
the first Russian cosmonaut to fly more than one mission on the
Space Shuttle.

    Chretien also is a veteran space flyer having spent more
than 32 days in space on two flights on Russian space stations.
He was a member of the 1982 Salyut 7 crew, spending more than
one week in orbit. He flew again as a member of a Mir crew in
1988, spending more than three weeks in space. STS-86 will be
Chretien+s third space flight, his first on the Space Shuttle.

    For complete biographical information on the STS-86 crew,
or any astronaut, see the NASA Internet biography home page at
URL:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

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