Editing Shuttle–Mir program (section)

===Phase One closes down (1998)===
The final year of Phase One began with the flight of [[Space Shuttle Endeavour|Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'']] on [[STS-89]]. The mission delivered cosmonaut [[Salizhan Sharipov]] to ''Mir'' and replaced David Wolf with [[Andy Thomas]], following Wolf's 119-day Increment.<ref name="SMH Flights"/><ref>{{cite web|title=STS-89 Mission Summary|author=Jim Dumoulin|publisher=NASA|date=June 29, 2001|url=http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-89/mission-sts-89.html|access-date=March 30, 2007|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062707/http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-89/mission-sts-89.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

During his Increment, the last of the program, Thomas worked on 27 science investigations into areas of advanced technology, [[Earth science]]s, human life sciences, microgravity research, and ISS risk mitigation. His stay on ''Mir'', considered the smoothest of the entire Phase One program, featured weekly "Letters from the Outpost" from Thomas and passed two milestones for length of spaceflight—815 consecutive days<!--start STS-76, March 22, 1996 to STS-91 landing, June 12, 1998--> in space by American astronauts since the launch of Shannon Lucid on the STS-76 mission in March 1996, and 907 days<!--Mir increments: Thagard, Mar 16. '95 to July 4 '95 and six others at a stretch Mar 24. '96 to June 8 '98--> of ''Mir'' occupancy by American astronauts dating back to Norman Thagard's trip to ''Mir'' in March 1995.<ref name="SMH Flights"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Letters from the Outpost|first=Andrew|last=Thomas|author-link=Andy Thomas|publisher=NASA|date=September 2001|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225/documentation/thomas-letters/letters.htm|access-date=April 15, 2007|archive-date=October 8, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061008060759/http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4225/documentation/thomas-letters/letters.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Thomas returned to Earth on the final Shuttle–''Mir'' mission, [[STS-91]]. The mission closed out Phase One, with the EO-25 and STS-91 crews transferring water to ''Mir'' and exchanging almost {{convert|4700|lb|kg}} of cargo experiments and supplies between the two spacecraft. Long-term American experiments that had been on board ''Mir'' were also moved into ''Discovery''. Hatches were closed for undocking at 9:07&nbsp;a.m. [[Eastern Daylight Time]] (EDT) on June 8 and the spacecraft separated at 12:01&nbsp;p.m. EDT that day.<ref name="SMH Flights"/><ref>{{cite web|title=STS-91 Mission Summary|author=Jim Dumoulin|publisher=NASA|date=June 29, 2001|url=http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-91/mission-sts-91.html|access-date=March 30, 2007|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111001/http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-91/mission-sts-91.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=William Harwood|title=Final American returns from Mir|newspaper=Washington Post|page=a12|date=June 13, 1998|publisher=Retrieved March 9, 2007 from NewsBank}}</ref>

[[Image:Unity-Zarya-Zvezda STS-106.jpg|thumb|The [[International Space Station]], Phase Two of the ISS program|alt=Three modules linked in a linear arrangement float in space with the Earth in the background. The top module is a metallic cylinder with a large white circle visible on it and a black cone at either end. The two lower modules are cylindrical and covered in white insulation, and have two blue solar arrays projecting from each. A smaller, brown spacecraft is docked to the lower module.]]