Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 30, 1995 TAG: 9506300082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON LENGTH: Medium
The sleek, white space shuttle Atlantis and the ungainly Russian space station Mir were speeding in tandem around Earth at 17,500 mph, and yet the closing rate between the two craft could be no more than an inch a second.
Other than having been built to travel in space, the two ships could not have been more unlike: the shuttle, about the size and shape of a DC-9, and the 123-ton Mir, which was assembled without any pretense at streamlining - bulges here and there and solar panels pointing every which way.
Protruding from the shuttle's open cargo bay was a shiny aluminum docking ring 5 feet across, the mirror image of one attached to the space station. It was Gibson's task to mate the two, with only a few inches of room for error.
A year's practice paid off: Gibson, the Atlantis commander, was right on target. The spacecraft joined with barely a shudder.
``I guess this really means the Cold War is over,'' President Clinton said in Washington.
The 10 astronauts and cosmonauts clasped hands, kissed and hugged Thursday after their two spacecraft began an unprecedented five-day voyage as one ship.
``You guys are upside down,'' NASA astronaut Norman Thagard said from Mir after the connecting 3-foot-long tunnel was opened.
``Come on through,'' urged Mir commander Vladimir Dezhurov. ``Please, enter.''
The seven men and women aboard shuttle Atlantis were greeted with salt and bread, a Russian tradition. In turn, Gibson gave the three Mir men fresh oranges and grapefruit, chocolate, three carnations and three silk roses.
Together, Atlantis and Mir formed the largest spacecraft ever, an awesome half-million pounds hurtling around Earth.
by CNB