Doctor, Two Cosmonauts Undergo Medical Tests Aboard Atlantis-Mir

HOUSTON — After 3 1/2 months of being the doctor, astronaut Norman E. Thagard became the patient Friday and was poked and probed aboard Atlantis-Mir, the linked U.S. shuttle and Russian space station.

Dr. Ellen Baker drew blood from Thagard, a physician, and his two Russian crew mates and performed physical exams to help scientists understand the effects on the body of long stays in space. Thagard spent 3 1/2 months aboard the space station Mir, a U.S. space endurance record.

Mission Control, meanwhile, was puzzled by the higher than expected use of fuel by Atlantis. The shuttle is controlling the position of the sprawling, half-million-pound complex by firing small jets so Mir’s power-generating solar panels point constantly toward the sun.