STS-89
Report # 15 
 Thursday, January 29, 1998, 6 p.m. CST 
 
 With a gentle push from springs in the docking mechanism attaching it
to the Russian Mir Space Station, Endeavour separated from the Russian
Space Station at 10:57 a.m. Central time today to wrap up more than
four days of joint operations and the eighth Shuttle-Mir docking
mission.  Following a flyaround of the station to gather additional
photography of the outpost, Pilot Joe Edwards conducted a final
separation maneuver to allow Endeavour to drift away from the Mir,
leaving behind U.S. astronaut Andy Thomas for the next four months of
research along with about 4 tons of water, logistical supplies and
scientific gear.

  At the time of undocking today, the Endeavour-Mir space complex was
orbiting overhead Kazakstan, home of the Baikonour Cosmodrome launch
site, where 24 minutes earlier, the Mir 25 crew - Commander Talgat
Musabayev, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and French researcher
Leopold Eyharts - lifted off aboard their Soyuz TM-27 capsule en route
to a Saturday rendezvous and linkup with Mir. Flight controllers
notified STS-89 commander Terry Wilcutt of the launch and safe climb
to orbit of the Soyuz spacecraft and its cosmonauts

  Musabayev will guide the new Soyuz to its docking with the station
Saturday at 12:13 p.m. Central time to begin a three-week handover to
replace Mir 24 Commander Anatoly Solovyev and Flight Engineer Pavel
Vinogradov, who are scheduled to return to Earth on Feb. 19 with
Eyharts following his three weeks of scientific research for the
French space agency.

  With the joint phase of the mission concluded, Endeavour's
seven-member crew will turn its attention to final stowage of the
items transferred from Mir to Endeavour for the return trip to Earth
tomorrow, and will continue science activity in the Spacehab module.

  The early weather forecast for Saturday's scheduled landing at the
Kennedy Space Center at 4:35 p.m. Central time calls for clear skies,
and as a result, mission managers have elected not to call up landing
support at Endeavour's backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base,
California. If Endeavour lands as planned on Saturday, astronaut Dave
Wolf, now a member of the STS-89 crew, will have spent 128 days in
space, 119 days as a Mir crew member.

  Endeavour is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of
about 210 nautical miles with all of its systems functioning
normally. The astronauts will begin an extended nine-hour sleep period
at 9:48 p.m. Central time. They'll be awakened at 6:48 a.m. Friday to
begin the routine checkout of orbiter systems for Saturday's return to
Earth.

  The next STS-89 status report will be issued at 6 a.m. Central time
Friday.


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