![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2008) |
![]() View from Discovery of Mir with the Progress-M 225 (top) and Soyuz-TM Vityaz (bottom) spacecraft | |
Names | Space Transportation System-63 |
---|---|
Mission type | Research Mir rendezvous |
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 1995-004A |
SATCAT no. | 23469 |
Mission duration | 8 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes, 15 seconds |
Distance travelled | 4,816,454 kilometers (2,992,806 mi) |
Orbits completed | 129 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery |
Payload mass | 8,641 kilograms (19,050 lb) |
Crew | |
Crew size | 6 |
Members | |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | February 3, 1995, 05:22:04 | UTC
Launch site | Kennedy, LC-39B |
End of mission | |
Landing date | February 11, 1995, 11:50:19 | UTC
Landing site | Kennedy, SLF Runway 15 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee altitude | 275 kilometres (171 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 342 kilometres (213 mi) |
Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
Period | 92.3 minutes |
![]() ![]() Left to right - Seated: Voss, Collins, Wetherbee, Titov; Standing: Harris, Foale |
STS-63 was the second mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, which carried out the first rendezvous of the American Space Shuttle with Russia's space station Mir. Known as the 'Near-Mir' mission, the flight used Space Shuttle Discovery, which lifted off from launch pad 39B on February 3, 1995, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A night launch and the 20th mission for Discovery, it marked the first time a Space Shuttle mission had a female pilot, Eileen Collins, and the first EVAs for both a UK born astronaut, Michael Foale, and a US astronaut of African heritage, Bernard A. Harris, Jr. It also carried out the successful deployment and retrieval of the Spartan-204 platform, along with the scheduled rendezvous and flyaround of Mir, in preparation for STS-71, the first mission to dock with Mir.