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S P E C I A L Repairing Mir

Russians, Americans embrace in space

Greetings aboard Mir

Atlantis successfully links up with Mir

September 27, 1997
Web posted at: 10:45 p.m. EDT (0245 GMT)

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas (CNN) -- Russians and Americans embraced in space Saturday, beginning a six-day joint adventure after a successful docking between the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir.

Scenes from both MIR and Atlantis of the approach and docking.
video icon 765 K/24 sec. QuickTime movie

The two spacecrafts, orbiting about 250 miles above Central Asia, came together at 2:58 p.m. CDT (1958 GMT). Mission Control in Houston was informed with the words, "Contact and capture confirmed."

A L S O :

Image gallery of Atlantis docking with Mir

After completing "structural mating" procedures to bind the crafts together and then checking for pressure leaks, a hatch in the docking module was opened nearly two hours later, allowing the Atlantis crew to enter the space station.

As he went through the passage into Mir, Atlantis commander Jim Wetherbee brought a welcome gift to his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Solovyev -- a new computer that will replace a problem-plagued model now on the ship.

The two crews then exchanged boisterous hellos in Russian and English. One of the American astronauts greeted compatriot Michael Foale, who has been on Mir since May, with a hearty, "You look great!"

Atlantis crew member David Wolf, who will replace Foale as part of the Mir team, looked around and said, "I'm going to like this place."

"There is more equipment and gizmos and ham radios and computers to play with and work with than you can believe," Wolf gushed later to Mission Control.

After their initial rendezvous and a joint appearance before the cameras for the folks back on Earth, the two crews joined together for a meal and a security briefing before calling it a day and going to bed.

Seventh joint U.S.-Russian mission

Mir

This is the seventh time in the past two years that an American shuttle has docked with Mir, part of an ongoing joint program that is a prelude to construction of an international space station.

In addition to five Americans, the shuttle crew also contains one member from Russia and one from France. Mir's three-member crew includes two Russians and Foale, who will be returning to Earth with Atlantis at the end of the joint mission.

During the docking procedures, the computer on board Mir that keeps the station oriented in space -- and which has broken down three times in as many weeks -- performed without any major problems.

However, in the last few hours before the docking, one of the three computer channels malfunctioned slightly, although a Russian space official called the glitch "a temporary breakdown that does not affect overall operations."

As the two spacecrafts got increasingly closer through the day Saturday, their crews chatted by radio in Russian, laughing and joking. As the moment of docking arrived, Wetherbee and pilot Mike Bloomfield fired the shuttle's maneuvering jets, slowed their approach to a near crawl and guided the shuttle into Mir's docking module.

At Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, the large number of Russian space officials who had gathered, anxiously watching the approach, broke into applause when successful contact was made.

NASA officials said later that as the final approach began, the shuttle and Mir were slightly misaligned, forcing the shuttle to modify its angle of approach by 3 degrees. Though that had not happened during previous dockings, lead flight director Paul Dye in Houston said the crew had been trained to make the maneuver and said the misalignment was not significant.

Atlantis will drop off 5,000 pounds of gear

Atlantis has brought to Mir more than 5,000 pounds of repair gear, science experiments and sealant for holes caused by Mir's June 25 collision with a supply ship. Atlantis is also hauling food and water, replenishing the station's dwindling supplies.

Atlantis

The joint crew will begin unloading the cargo on Sunday, and Wolf and Foale will change places as official members of the Mir crew.

Wolf, a 41-year-old doctor, aerobatic pilot and engineer, says he isn't worried about taking up residence on trouble-prone Mir. He says his stay will be no different than any other space flight and that he plans to carry out the mission the same way he does his flying: "Do it carefully and don't cross the line."

Wolf didn't get the final go-ahead from NASA for his stay until hours before Thursday night's launch. Mounting pressure from members of Congress and others had forced NASA to reconsider allowing Americans to stay on Mir. But NASA officials decided to stick with plans to continue the joint venture with the Russians.

"There was a lot of discussion about the risk," Wetherbee said from Mir. "We are here to tell you, all 10 of us, that we think the benefits far outweigh the risk, and that's why we're here."

Foale: Looking forward to going home

During his tenure on the orbiting station, Foale, 40, a British-born astrophysicist, endured the nearly catastrophic collision and repeated life-support equipment breakdowns, among other calamities.

When Wolf joked that he was "going to have to kick Mike out of here," Foale said that he was indeed anxious to go home, particularly to see his 3-year-old son.

"They've just been telling me how my son has grown up to about twice the height that he was when I was on the Earth," Foale said. "I'm looking forward to returning to my family."

In addition to the collision during Foale's stay, the 11-year-old Mir has also been plagued by numerous problems in the past year, including a life-threatening fire, leaking coolant and the failure of oxygen generators and a carbon dioxide-removal system.

Correspondents John Holliman, Jill Dougherty and Reuters contributed to this report.


MIR special grfk
· MIR MAIN PAGE · RELATED SITES · HISTORY ·

· TIMELINE · GALLERY · SOYUZ · CREW · REPAIR MISSION ·

 
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