Mike Foale was launched to Mir on STS-84 and became a crew member on May 15 1997, his stay ended on October 5 1997. He is a veteran of four space flights, logging more than 634 hours in space. He flew as a mission specialist on STS-45 (March 24 to April 2, 1992) the first of the ATLAS series of missions to address the atmosphere and its interaction with the Sun, and again as a mission specialist on STS-56, carrying ATLAS-2, and the SPARTAN retrievable satellite which made observations of the solar corona.
He was a mission specialist on STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995), the first rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir. During the flight he made a space walk (extravehicular activity) for 4 hours, 39 minutes, evaluating the effects of extremely cold conditions on his spacesuit, as well as moving the 2800-pound Spartan satellite as part of a mass handling experiment.