English: This image was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting spindly appendages and solar panels, Mir is orbiting about 350 kilometers above New Zealand's South Island and the city of Nelson near Cook Strait.
Backdropped against the waters of Cook Strait near New Zealand's South Island, Russia's Mir Space Station is seen from the aft flight deck window of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The two spacecraft were in the process of making their third docking in Earth-orbit. With the subsequent delivery of astronaut Shannon W. Lucid to the Mir, the Mir-21 crew grew to three, as the mission specialist quickly becomes a cosmonaut guest researcher. She will spend approximately 140 days on Mir before returning to Earth.