THE US SPACE Shuttle Atlantis has been rolled out to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, for a second time, equipped with a new set of solid-rocket boosters. The Shuttle is scheduled to fly the delayed STS79 mission on 12 September (Flight International, 24-30 July).

The fourth Shuttle Mir Mission (SMM), the STS79, due to have flown in July, will deliver 1,475kg of food, water, supplies and equipment to the Russian Mir 1 space station, together with astronaut John Blaha, who will replace US colleague Shannon Lucid. She will return aboard the STS79.

Blaha will work with cosmonauts Valeri Korzun and Alexander Kaleri, the Soyuz TM24 crew. They will replace the resident TM23's Yuri Oufrienko and Yuri Usachev, who, with French astronaut Claudie Andre-Deshays, were due to land on 2 September.

The STS81/SMM 5, which will pick up Blaha and deliver a new US crewman Jerry Linenger, is scheduled for a 12 January, 1997 launch. NASA has announced that the STS84/SMM 6 mission, scheduled for May 1997, will now include Russian cosmonaut Yelena Kondakova, a veteran of a 169-day stay aboard the Mir in 1995.

Source: Flight International