This mission was part of the Shuttle-Mir Program, in which three American astronauts flew aboard the station during Mir EO-24.

Beginning in 1995 with STS-71, Atlantis made seven straight flights to the former Russian space station Mir as part of the Shuttle-Mir Program.

Challenger was destroyed before the Shuttle-Mir Program began, and Enterprise never flew in space.

It was the fourth mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, and it carried out the second docking of a space shuttle to Mir.

In January 1994 he was assigned to the Shuttle-Mir Program.

It was during this time of transition and upheaval that the Shuttle-Mir Program was established between the Russian Federation and the United States in 1993.

It was "Phase Two" of this Shuttle-Mir Program that would lead to the International Space Station.

The United States and Russia would work together in space with the Shuttle-Mir Program, and again with the International Space Station.

After the cancellation of the Buran program in 1993, the lateral docking port found use for the Shuttle-Mir Program.

When the Shuttle-Mir Program began APAS was selected as the docking system.