On This Day in Aviation History: 1996

According to History.com and downloaded from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-23/shannon-lucid-enters-mir  on March 23, 2025, on this day in 1996 in aviation history “U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid transferred to the Russian space station Mir from the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for a planned five-month stay. Lucid was the first female U.S. astronaut to live in a space station.

Astronaut Shannon Lucid.  AFP via Getty Images.

“Lucid, a biochemist, shared Mir with Russian cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev, conducting scientific experiments during her stay. Beginning in August, her scheduled return to Earth was delayed more than six weeks because of last-minute repairs to the booster rockets of Atlantis and then by a hurricane. Finally, on September 26, 1996, she returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, touching down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Her 188-day sojourn aboard Mir set a new space endurance record for an American and a world endurance record for a woman.”

The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station at 11:07 a.m. (EDT) on July 10, 2011 on Flight Day 3 of NASA’s last shuttle flight. Part of a Russian Progress spacecraft, which is docked to the station, is in the foreground. (Image credit: NASA)

Onward and upward!

Sources:  History.com, Getty Images, NASA