Norman E. Thagard. US astronaut and cosmonaut Norman Thagard, photographed inside the Spacelab science module of Shuttle Atlantis. He is seen holding the flight suit he wore on the Russian Mir space station. Thagard was the first US citizen to qualify as a cosmonaut and fly on a Russian space mission. He was launched to the Mir space station in March 1995, and returned to Earth on the Shuttle at the end of Mission STS-71. STS-71 flew on 27th June to 7 July 1995, and was the first mission on which the Shuttle docked with Mir.