Cosmonaut Strekalov during emergency egress training at JSC

S94-47083 (14 Oct 1994) --- Cosmonaut Gennadiy M. Strekalov, Mir-18 flight engineer, who will return via the Space Shuttle Atlantis from a three-month mission aboard Russia's Mir Space Station, joins the STS-71 crew members during emergency egress training. The training took place in the systems integration facility at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). In a precedent-setting flight, NASA astronaut Norman E. Thagard will be launched with Vladimir N. Dezhurov and Strekalov to the Mir Space Station early next year for a three month mission. Then in late May, as the assignment of STS-71, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with Mir to pick up the Mir 18 crew and transfer two other cosmonauts to the station for the Mir 19 mission.