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She flew previously on STS-67, a sixteen day flight of the ASTRO observatory in 1995. She will launch aboard Endeavour as part of the STS-86 crew, and become a member of the Mir 24 crew, replacing astronaut Michael Foale.

Michael Foale (Mission Specialist) - Foale was part of the astronaut class of 1987. He has logged more than 634 hours in space, flying aboard STS-45 in 1992, STS-56 in 1993, and STS-63 in 1995, the first rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir. He launched on STS-84 in May 1997, and will leave Mir and return as a member of the crew on STS-86.

The Flight:

Launch Day: The orbiter will launch with the KidSat camera stored in one of the lockers on the shuttle middeck. It will stay in the locker during the astronauts' first day in orbit. The astronauts spend this day getting the shuttle safely into orbit, opening the shuttle's payload bay doors, changing from their launch pressure suits to more comfortable clothes, and generally setting up the space shuttle so that it can stay in orbit for several days. The first day will be a relatively short day. The astronauts will go to sleep about five hours after launch. 

Before docking: In the morning of their second day in orbit, the astronauts will take the camera out of storage, and mount it in the shuttle's overhead window. The KidSat camera will be able to take pictures for about the next twenty hours. Meanwhile, the shuttle will be chasing Mir, slowly catching up to it. During this part of the flight, the shuttle is in the right orientation of KidSat (upside down, "-ZLV", so the camera will be pointed toward Earth). The astronauts will take the camera down before the docking with Mir--they need to use that window to line up the orbiter for its final approach. 

Docked phase: The KidSat camera will not be mounted in the window while the shuttle and Mir are docked to each other. There are two good reasons for this: (1) the window isn't pointing to Earth!, and (2) the astronauts will be using the window for other things. The orbiter and Mir will remain docked together for five days.


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