the -X port. Atlantis Launch on STS-71 After 4 days of delays caused by bad weather at Kennedy Space Center, Atlantis was launched on June 27 at 19:32 UTC. About 3 hours after launch, Atlantis Commander Robert Gibson began a series of orbital maneuvering system firings that would, through the next 2 days, take Atlantis to Mir's orbit, gradually decreasing the closing rate as well as distance. On the second mission day, as they moved toward the station, Gibson, Charles Precourt and Bonnie Dunbar began activating the Spacelab module in preparations for life sciences investigations. The crew extended the Orbital Docking System (ODS) docking ring to the docking position and found it in excellent working order. Historic Docking On June 29 at 13:00 UTC, Gibson guided Atlantis to the docking port on the Kristall module and Harbaugh engaged the docking mechanism. The two spacecraft met 216 nautical miles above the Lake Baikal region of Russia. After pressurization and leak checks of the vestibule airlock, the two crews met and exchanged greetings and congratulations. There were ten of them, a new record of the largest crew ever aboard a single complex. The docked Mir and Atlantis totaled 220 tones, a new record for orbiting spacecraft mass. July 1995 - Mir 18 completion After Atlantis left the Russian space station on July 4, the homeward-bound Mir 18 crew continued their medical and scientific investigations in the Spacelab module in Atlantis' payload bay. They used the lower body negative pressure unit and a baroreflex neck cuff to test cardiovascular orthostatic function response to microgravity. Mir Principal Expedition 19 The only complete Mir mission of 1995 with an all-Russian crew, Mir 19 had many international elements. The first Mir crew launched on a Space Shuttle Orbiter, Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin began their work in conjunction with a visiting U.S. crew and departing Mir 18 international crew. Two of their EVAs involved deployment and retrieval of internationals experiments. And they ended their stay by welcoming an incoming international crew. July 1995 - Cosmic Ballet The "Cosmic Ballet" On July 4, Solovyev and Budarin donned their flight suits, entered Soyuz TM-21 and undocked from Mir to a station-keeping position from which they photographed Mir and Atlantis, still docked. About 15 minutes later, Atlantis undocked from Mir when Gibson released the hooks that held the two craft together and allowed the docking system springs to nudge