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

DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995                   TAG: 9507050047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LET HIM TAKE HIS WIFE - PLEASE

``If I could have brought my wife along I probably would have,'' he said Monday before the space voyagers said their farewells aboard the orbiting Atlantis-Mir complex.

The U.S. shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir are due to undock today after five days of being linked by a pressurized tunnel.

``Together we can do everything we want to do, including a flight to Mars,'' Thagard said in his last words to the Russian Mission Control outside Moscow.

``It's just one of the small milestones along a much greater mission,'' added Atlantis' commander, Robert ``Hoot'' Gibson. ``But at least we have begun that very long journey.''

Thagard spent nearly four months circling Earth with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennady Strekalov, who also can't wait to return to their wives and children. The three are returning to Earth aboard Atlantis, due to land Friday.

Women are needed in space, Strekalov replied when asked by a Russian reporter what it was like to fly with Atlantis' two female crew members. ``The more the better,'' he said.

The reporter, a woman, said a former Mir cosmonaut was glad to have a woman along because she did ``traditional female tasks such as washing dishes.''

Dezhurov responded: ``Up here on the station, we have a particular way of working and it really doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman. Everybody's got their responsibilities.''

Only two women have lived on Mir in its nine-year history, a Briton and a Russian.

Thagard, who marked his 52nd birthday and 111th day in space Monday with more medical tests, said NASA needs to pay more attention to the psychological aspects of long-duration space travel. More studies also are needed before husbands and wives live together on orbiting stations, he said.

``There are some hazards to that, perhaps,'' Thagard said. ``I wouldn't rule it out, but I think I'd want to study that question. I'd want some expert opinions,'' he said. ``NASA is still looking at - better look at it - because we propose to put people on spacecraft in relative isolation for six months or even a year.''

Thagard and his wife, Kirby, have been married 30 years.

Only once have a husband and wife flown together in space, aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis worked opposite shifts.