STS-71 cosmonauts and astronauts examine hardware to be flown on mission

S94-47075 (Nov. 1994) --- In a Shuttle mockup trainer at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts assigned to Russia's Mir 18 mission check out hardware like that to be flown onboard NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis, the spacecraft that will retrieve the three from their orbital home for three months. Astronaut Norman E. Thagard (left), cosmonaut Vladimir N. Dezhurov, mission commander; and Gennadiy M. Strekalov, flight engineer; practice using the Recumbent Seating System (RSS). Astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar, Thagard's backup on Mir 18 and mission specialist for STS-71, sits in a conventional middeck launch and entry station in the background. RSS has been manifest to be carried on the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-71 mission. When the Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with Russia's Mir Space Station in 1995, Thagard and the two Russian cosmonauts, who will have been onboard Mir for a long duration stay, will join the STS-71 crew for the return to Earth.