STS-63

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STS-63

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	James D. Wetherbee Eileen Collins Bernard A. Harris, Jr. Michael Foale Janice E. Voss Vladimir G. Titov
Start of mission
Launch date	February 3, 1995, 05:22:04 (1995-02-03UTC05:22:04Z) UTC
Launch site	Kennedy, LC-39B
End of mission
Landing date	February 11, 1995, 11:50:19 (1995-02-11UTC11:50:20Z) 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 Space Shuttle program ← STS-66 (66) STS-67 (68) →

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.