From NASANews@luna.osf.hq.nasa.govThu Feb  1 07:45:28 1996
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 10:15:49 -0500
From: NASA HQ Public Affairs Office <NASANews@luna.osf.hq.nasa.gov>
To: press-release-com@mercury.hq.nasa.gov
Subject: Astronauts Participate in Mir 21 Crew Press Briefing at
Star City, Russia on Feb. 6

Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC            January 31, 1996
(Phone:  202/358-1639)

Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202/358-1780)

Kyle Herring
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N96-5

ASTRONAUTS PARTICIPATE IN MIR 21 CREW PRESS BRIEFING AT STAR 
CITY, RUSSIA ON FEB. 6

     NASA astronauts Shannon W. Lucid, Ph.D., and John E. 
Blaha (Colonel, USAF, Ret.), currently training in Russia 
for the Mir 21 mission, will participate in a crew press 
conference at the Y.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, 
Star City, Russia, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 8 a.m. EST (4 p.m. 
Moscow time).

     U.S. news media wishing to obtain press accreditation 
to cover this event in Star City should contact Debra Rahn, 
Public Affairs Officer, International Relations, NASA 
Headquarters, by phone at 202/358-1639 or by fax at 202/358-2983.

     Lucid and Blaha were selected last year as the prime 
and backup crew members for a five-month flight on the 
Russian space station Mir in 1996 and have been training in 
Star City since March 1995.

     Lucid is scheduled to be launched to Mir on the Space 
Shuttle Atlantis as part of the STS-76 crew on March 21.  
Lucid will join the two Russian Cosmonauts, Mir 21 Commander 
Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer, Yuri Usachev, who are 
scheduled to be launched to the Mir on Feb. 21.  While the 
Space Shuttle Atlantis is docked to Mir for five days, two 
U.S. astronauts will conduct a spacewalk to attach a series 
of experiments to the Mir docking module.  Atlantis will be
carrying
logistical supplies and water to be transferred to the Mir.

                    -end-

EDITOR'S NOTE:  NASA will carry the Mir 21 crew press 
conference live on NASA Television starting at 8:00 a.m. EST 
(4:00 p.m. local Moscow time).  Due to the limited time set 
aside for the press conference, two-way Q&A capability from 
the United States will not be provided.