Word: mir
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...directed space research was to outdo the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union by trumping their achievements with more impressive ones of our own. Today I can open my morning newspaper and read a story about the American space shuttle executing a daring rendezvous with the Russian space station, Mir. Imagine that: the East and West working together in space for a change, instead of racing against each other. Contrary to popular belief, the planned international Space Station Freedom is not "NASA's space station;" it belongs to the world, in name if not in government budgets. Space exists outside...
...space shuttle Discovery may not be able to get as close to the Russian space station Mir as planned. Shortly after Discovery reached orbit this morning, two of its steering thrusters failed; one of the thrusters is leaking and may compromise the crew's ability to steer the shuttle at close range to the station. The eight-day mission is a rehearsal for a June mission during which the shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to become the first to dock at Mir. At Discovery's controls on this mission: Captain Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot a U.S. spacecraft. Nineteen...
Russia's once mighty space program nearly lost one of the few bragging points it has left when a resupply ship had trouble docking with space station Mir last summer. If a final try had not succeeded, cosmonauts would have had to leave Mir unmanned for the first time in five years...
...Russians insist Mir is in good shape, but they cannot say the same for the workers at the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. According to a report on Moscow TV, the workers' housing is deteriorating, crime is on the rise, and schools and hospitals are closing down. Under such conditions, observes James Oberg, an author and expert on the Russian space program, "skills get diluted, motivation disappears, attention wanders...
...buying Moscow's line for now: things could be better, but the Right Stuff will prevail. Says astronaut Robert ("Hoot") Gibson, who is scheduled to pilot the space shuttle Atlantis to a first ever rendezvous with Mir next May: "Conditions over there are more difficult than they were. But we're making it work, and we need to." Gibson will be visiting Baikonur beginning this week. It will be interesting to see if he feels the same way on his return...