The View from Space: Farewell to Mir

By John Holliman

June 10, 1998
Web posted at 1:00 p.m. EDT

As I write this, shuttle Discovery is crossing the equator on its 109th orbit of the Earth since launch last Tuesday. I'm still excited about the launch. It was so beautiful.

After the shuttle got into orbit, we got disappointing news. The antenna which the shuttle uses for almost round-the-clock live television from space was not working. That means we can only get pictures from the shuttle when it's flying over NASA ground stations, and there aren't many of them left. The one near the launch pad at Merritt Island, Florida, is the one that's been providing most shuttle television since Discovery undocked from Mir on Monday.

One of the crew members on the shuttle is Valery Ryumin. He's the head of the Shuttle-Mir program for Russia and is a veteran cosmonaut. He flew three times to Russian space stations in orbit before Mir but stopped flying and began being an administrator 17 years ago. In the years since, he's gained weight and gotten out of shape physically. He and his Russian bosses agreed he should try to qualify for a flight to Mir, just to take a last look before it is abandoned. He lost 60 pounds and worked out regularly to get in shape for the flight.

I asked Ryumin about the differences in spaceflight on the shuttle versus the Soyuz vehicles he used to get onto Russian ships. He says it's much more spacious on the shuttle but that the U.S. ship is so complicated that it can't be operated by one or two people. He says that's a disadvantage since Mir and Soyuz ships can be operated by one person in a pinch.

Ryumin was criticized by some people for using his power as a senior Russian space official to get a seat on the shuttle, but CNN talked to several analysts who say as a former cosmonaut and designer of Mir, he was the right person to go up and take a look in Mir's final months. CNN is broadcasting a story about Ryumin, his training and the criticism this week.

Precourt and his Mir counterpart, Talgat Musabayev, say goodbye as the Shuttle undocked from Mir for the last time

I talked to the Shuttle-Mir crew in orbit. Because the shuttle television system is broken, we couldn't see the astronauts, but there was interesting news from space -- Shuttle Commander Charlie Precourt reported that the equipment used to pilot Discovery up to Mir did not work properly in the final minutes before docking. Hand-held laser range finders were unreliable, and the shuttle's on-board radar seemed to be giving inaccurate readings of how far the shuttle and Mir were from each other. He said it was the most complicated docking he's ever done, and he's been to Mir twice before.

Janet Kavandi, a rookie astronaut on this trip, told me she cried as the shuttle lifted off for Mir. She said they were not tears of sadness, but tears of excitement as she made it into space for the first time. As the countdown close ticked away Tuesday evening, she reported, she really didn't expect the launch to happen. She said there were so many things that could go wrong, she expected to have to wait to get into orbit. Dom Gorie, the shuttle pilot, says he's just measured all the astronauts on board, and they've all grown between three-quarters of an inch and 2 inches taller because there's no gravity to force their bodies down.

Last week, I promised to tell you the story of Vaughn Cordle. He's a captain for one of the top airlines in the world, and he wants to be the pilot of a satellite or rocket carrying passengers into space. He may get his way. Cordle has been picked by a company called Advent Launch Services to pilot the company's civilian astronaut corps into orbit.

Cordle spent the day with me to explain why he believes his rocket ship will work and to talk about something called the X-Prize. It's a $10 million prize for the first private human-occupied vehicle to take off from Earth, travel at least 62 miles into space, then land and do it again within two weeks. X-prize contestants, and there are more than a dozen, will win $10 million for being first to accomplish the two human flights. The prize can't be won by a government or a private entry getting government funding.

The various entries are from teams all over the world, but most are from the United States, and some look more like flying saucers than rockets. The prize will be there until somebody wins it. Some rockets launch from the ground, and one, the Advent rocket, will take off from the ocean. That's really something.

About John Glenn. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about John Glenn's flight on the shuttle and said that I believe the Ohio Democratic senator is a hero. Not all of you agree. In this week's mail bag were about a dozen notes that suggest Glenn's trip is one big boondoggle for a member of Congress who has held the purse strings of NASA for years. I'm not going to argue the point in View from Space, and I'm reporting on your e-mail to let you know I got it.

I also appreciate corrections. I certainly know that the first U.S. piece of the international space station has been renamed "Unity," and as several of you pointed out, no one has yet come up with a name for the Russian Service Module, other than "late!"

Thanks for caring enough to drop me a line.

More next week.