ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996                TAG: 9608190098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: MOSCOW

1ST FRENCH WOMAN HEADS INTO SPACE

A Russian spaceship with two cosmonauts and the first French woman astronaut on board took off Saturday for the Mir orbiting space station.

The Soyuz TM-24 space ship was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan and is scheduled to dock with Mir on Monday.

On board are Claudie Andre-Deshays of France and cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Alexander Kalery, who replaced another Russian crew after the original flight commander was found to have a minor heart problem.

Andre-Deshays, a 39-year-old rheumatologist and an expert in neuroscience, planned to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

The new arrivals will join cosmonauts Yuri Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev and American astronaut Shannon Lucid already on the orbiting space station. Lucid is scheduled to return to Earth in September.

- Associated Press

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