Shuttle Atlantis Docks With Space Station

The space shuttle Atlantis linked with Russia’s space station 245 miles above Earth on Saturday night, ferrying a NASA astronaut eager to begin her five-month stay and “great adventure.”

Atlantis slowly, gracefully moved in and docked with the Mir station as the spacecraft soared over Russia. “Houston, I have contact and capture,” reported Atlantis’ commander, Kevin Chilton.

NASA’s communication lines were quiet as Chilton guided Atlantis into Mir’s docking port. Until then, there had been almost nonstop chatter between the six shuttle astronauts and two station cosmonauts, in English and Russian.

Shannon Lucid said she was looking forward to being the first American woman to live on Mir.

“I think it’ll be a great adventure,” she said in a TV interview Saturday. “I’ll be doing things that I haven’t done before.”

Atlantis’ rendezvous with Mir is NASA’s third docking with the station in less than a year.

Lucid had been preparing for more than a year for the five-month stay, 10 times longer than her longest space stint to date, and four times longer than her four previous space flights combined.

No other American has ever spent so much time in orbit; Dr. Norman Thagard spent nearly four months on Mir last year. That’s the whole point--NASA needs more long-duration space experience before it starts to build and staff an international space station in a few years.

Lucid, 53, a biochemist and the first woman to fly in space five times, is to remain aboard Mir until August, when Atlantis returns with her replacement, NASA astronaut John Blaha.

Lucid expects her stay to be tolerable, if not enjoyable. Unlike Thagard, who had limited food selection and sparse family contact, Lucid got to choose her meals in advance and has been promised regular calls home.

On Friday, NASA considered cutting the shuttle flight short because of a leak in a steering system, but officials decided the vehicle was safe and that the escaped hydraulic fluid would not damage any shuttle equipment or the Mir.