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| S P E C I A L S: | CNN In-Depth: - Space |
| Mission Mir |
Shuttle to undock, make way for Russian rendezvous with Mir
January 29, 1998
The old and the new crew on Mir
Web posted at: 9:44 a.m. EDT (0944 GMT)CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- A Soyuz rocket was scheduled to blast off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome on Thursday on a mission to Mir, where just 23 minutes later, the space shuttle Endeavour will undock after a five-day stay.
The Russian craft will deliver two Russian cosmonauts and a Frenchman to the Mir space station, while NASA's Endeavour will bring U.S. astronaut David Wolf back home. U.S. astronaut. Andrew Thomas will remain on Mir for the next four months.
"This is a day of mixed feelings for me," Thomas said before saying goodbye to his six shuttle crewmates and to Wolf, his American predecessor on Mir.
"The friends that I've been with will be leaving and flying home," Thomas said. "But on the other hand I'll be staying here and starting what will be a new stage of my life. ... It's time to get on with work, and that's what I'm ready to do."
Leopold Eyharts, a 40-year-old air force pilot, will become the eighth French astronaut in orbit. Also aboard Soyuz-47 will be flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, 44, and its commander, Talgat Musabayev, 47.
Musabayev will take over command of Mir from its current commander, Anatoly Solovyev, who will return to Earth with cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and Eyharts in about three weeks. Both Solovyev and Vinogradov have been on board Mir for six months.
While weather conditions at the Russian launch site appeared to be good for an on-time departure shortly before noon EST (1633 GMT), the operation is so complex that even a 10-second delay will mean postponing the launch for about a day.
Before Vinogradov gets his reprieve from space duties, he and Musabayev face repair and maintenance jobs, including hunting for the puncture in the Spektr module caused by a June collision with a cargo ship, fixing a leaking hatch, and changing a motor on the Kvant-1 module, one of the oldest on Mir.
Musabayev and Budarin will also conduct repairs to the station, including an attempt to resurrect the Spektr module.
Such experience in keeping the world's only space center going, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and deep economic crisis in Russia, has given Russia a major role in the new International Space Station, whose Russian-built first unit will be launched from Baikonur in June.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Related stories:
- Astronaut on Mir criticized for poor command of Russian - January 28, 1998
- Astronaut's ill-fitting Mir spacesuit fixed - January 26, 1998
- Crews of Mir, Endeavour embrace - January 24, 1998
- Mir, Endeavour rendezvous - January 24, 1998
- Endeavour blasts off for rendezvous with Mir - January 22, 1998
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