U.S. astronaut C. Michael Foale exchanged places with Jerry Linenger, who arrived at Mir 15 January 1997 with the crew of Shuttle Mission STS-81.

Another milestone reached during his stay was one-year anniversary of continuous U.S. presence in space that began with Lucid's arrival at Mir 22 March 1996.

On 29 April 1997 Linenger participated in five-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) with Mir 23 Commander Vasily Tsibliyev to attach a monitor to the outside of the station.

It caused minimal damage but required station's inhabitants to wear protective masks for about 36 hours until cabin air was cleaned.

Greetings exchanged between STS-84 crew and Mir 23 Commander Vasily Tsibliyev, Flight Engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin and Linenger, followed by a safety briefing.

Other activities conducted during the mission included investigations using the Biorack facility, located in the SPACEHAB Double Module in Atlantis's payload bay, a photo survey of Mir during docked operations, environmental air samplings and radiation monitoring.