U.S., Russian Space Crews Part on Emotional Note

The crews of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis and the orbiting Russian station Mir bid a poignant farewell Monday after five days together that opened a new era of space cooperation.

After an emotional ceremony, the crews retreated to their own vehicles and closed the hatches in preparation for today’s separation of the first spaceships from different countries to dock in the last 20 years.

U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard, ending a 3 1/2-month stay on Mir, grimaced frequently during the goodbys, and Bonnie Dunbar, who trained for a year to be a cosmonaut, wiped her eyes occasionally during the ceremony, broadcast from the core module of Mir.

The crews plan a farewell flourish today when the Soyuz return craft and the shuttle both shove off, leaving the Mir briefly empty as the two excursion craft fly around it, taking pictures of each other across the void before the Soyuz returns to Mir and Atlantis peels off for home.

Thagard and two Russian cosmonauts marking their 112th day in space boarded the shuttle for the trip home, leaving behind a relief crew of two Russian cosmonauts beginning a 2 1/2-month mission on the Mir, Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin.

Thagard spoke in Russian to flight controllers in Kaliningrad, near Moscow, telling them: “Together we can do everything we want to do, including a flight to Mars.”

The shuttle crew presented Solovyev and Budarin with small parting gifts.

Dunbar, who spent much of 1994 in cosmonaut training with Solovyev and Budarin at Russia’s Star City, said in English spiced with Russian words, “I have some emotional thoughts about saying goodby to them and I know they’ll do a great job up here.” She quickly looked away from the camera.

Atlantis commander Robert (Hoot) Gibson told Solovyev: “I don’t know how to say this in Russian, but we wish you fair winds and following seas and soft landings. We will count the days until you come back and we get to see you again.”

In broken English, Solovyev promised that, “We will meet in Moscow in August with our very big crew.”

Atlantis will return to Mir in October on the second of six planned visits through 1997, when the United States and Russia begin assembling a new international space station.

In a televised news conference earlier Monday, Thagard spoke of the loneliness of spending nearly four months in space without English-speaking companions.

He also said NASA should study the possibility of couples traveling together during long stays in space. “If I could have brought my wife along I probably would have,” he said.

He urged officials to pay close attention to the psychological stress of prolonged time in space before future missions of six months or longer.