19951776 Club
Atlantis docks with Mir; Gibson holds misalignment to less than an inch at 216 nautical miles up
The link-up is simultaneously the first U.S.-Russian spacecraft docking and the 100th American crewed spaceflight, producing the largest spacecraft in orbit at roughly 225 metric tons.
Four years after the Soviet flag came down over the Kremlin, two former space-race rivals were about to share a doorway 216 nautical miles above Lake Baikal. Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A on June 27, 1995, and two days later commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson eased the orbiter toward Mir at a closing rate of barely a tenth of a foot per second — misalignment held to less than an inch. The docking on June 29 was simultaneously the first U.S.-Russian spacecraft link-up and the 100th American crewed spaceflight, and the combined vehicle, at roughly 225 metric tons, was the largest spacecraft in orbit…
