Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 7, 1995                   TAG: 9502070077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

`UNBELIEVABLE': U.S., RUSSIA RENDEZVOUS IN SPACE

Two 100-ton spaceships - the biggest ever to converge in space - flew in formation just 37 feet apart Monday in the first U.S.-Russian rendezvous in 20 years.

``Unbelievable,'' Discovery's commander said.

``Almost like a fairy tale,'' Mir's commander said.

It almost didn't happen. Russian space officials gave in at the last minute, allowing Discovery and its crew of six to creep close despite fears that a leaking jet would damage equipment on Mir.

``We are bringing our spaceships closer together. We are bringing our nations closer together,'' Discovery's commander, James Wetherbee, said at the moment of closest approach in the mission, a dress rehearsal for the first shuttle-Mir docking in June.

Wetherbee repeated his message in Russian for the benefit of the three Mir cosmonauts, and station commander Alexander Viktorenko replied that all nine space travelers were involved in the ``greatest profession God could give anyone.''

The moment, he said, was ``almost like a fairy tale ... almost too good to be true.''

The encounter began 245 miles above the Pacific Ocean and lasted just 13 minutes, climaxing at 2:20 p.m. EST as both spaceships circled Earth at 17,500 mph.

Spectacular video scenes beamed down from Mir showed Discovery just 400 feet away and closing. A corner of the sprawling Mir station could be seen in some shots, with a cloud-covered, blue planet as the backdrop.

At the same time, Discovery's cameras zoomed in on Mir. NASA simultaneously broadcast both images on its television circuit.

Discovery's Russian crew member, Vladimir Titov, was seen smiling and waving from a shuttle window at the Mir cosmonauts. Titov, who spent a year on Mir in the late 1980s, talked almost continuously with the cosmonauts via ship-to-ship radio to keep them informed of Discovery's movements.

It was the first encounter between U.S. and Russian spacecraft since the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz docking and required some of the most precise steering in 14 years of space shuttle flight. Apollo and Soyuz were considerably smaller.

It was Discovery's 57th orbit, the 51,263rd for Mir, part of which has been in orbit for nine years.