Soyuz Blasts Off; Soviet Flag to Be Lowered in Space
The Soyuz TM-15 spacecraft with two Russians and a French researcher on board blasted off Monday on a mission to the Mir space station that is to include the removal of the defunct hammer-and-sickle flag.
Live television showed a perfect liftoff at 10:09 a.m. Moscow time from the steppes of Kazakhstan, home to much of the once-mighty Soviet space program.
The spacecraft that blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome was scheduled to link up with the Mir station, which is badly in need of new equipment, on Wednesday.
Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov, a 44-year-old space veteran, and Sergei Avdeyev, 36, will deploy new equipment to help keep the station aloft. They are to remain on board until January.
Frenchman Michel Tognini, 42, will return to Earth next month after completing experiments.
The astronauts are scheduled to remove the old Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag from one of the space station’s masts--a final, symbolic blow to what was once a proud Soviet space program.
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