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VII. The Three Missions

The KidSat pilot consisted of three missions on the shuttle, part three of the nine shuttle missions that flew to the Russian Mir Space Station. These missions were selected because the orbit inclinations of 51[[dregree-symbol]] provided a view of most of the United States. There was also a significant amount of time before and after docking with Mir when the shuttle was flying in the Z-axis Local Vertical (-ZLV attitude during which the KidSat camera could see Earth.

[[3 images]]
Figure 50: Logos for STS-76 (left), STS-81 (center), and STS-86 (right).

Table 8: Summary of Missions

STS-76 Crew Mission Goals
Launch Date March 22, 1996 Kevin Chilton Third Mir docking,
Landing Date March 31, 1996 Richard Searfoss crew delivery Lucid
Duration (days) 9.22 Ronald Sega
No. Orbs 144 Richard Clifford
Hours Op.* 37 Linda Godwin**
No. Schools 3 Shannon Lucid
No. Students ~380
No. Photos 326

STS-81 Crew Mission Goals
Launch Date January 12, 1997 Mike Baker Fifth Mir docking,
Landing Date January 22, 1997 Brent Jett crew exchange
Duration (days) 10.21 Jeff Wisoff (Linenger/Blaha)|
No. Orbs 160 John Grunsfield
Hours Op.* 72 Marsha Ivins**
No. Schools 17 Jerry Linenger
No. Students ~3000 John Blaha
No. Photos 540

STS-86 Crew Mission Goals
Launch Date September 25, 1997 James Wetherbee Seventh Mir docking
Landing Date October 6, 1997 Mike Bloomfield** crew exchange
Duration (days) 10.80 Scott Parazynski (Foale/Wolf)
No. Orbs 169 Valdimir Titov
Hours Op.* 38 Jean-Loup Chrétien
No. Schools 52 David Wolf
No. Students ~6000 Michael Faole
No. Photos 656

*Total hours of operation for the KidSat camera
**KidSat Payload Officer