Thundering Liftoff Begins Shuttle’s Mission to Mir
The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into the night Thursday on a flight to take one last American to live aboard the Russian space station Mir.
Thick, dark clouds that had hovered over the launch site throughout the afternoon were gone by the time Endeavour and its crew of seven rocketed away at 9:48 p.m. EST, right on time.
Andrew Thomas, Mir’s next astronaut, was the main attraction.
“Good luck, Andy!” well-wishers shouted when he headed to the pad. Among those on hand for the launch was Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), the former astronaut recently returned to flight status and preparing for his own shuttle trip this fall.
Thomas, a 46-year-old Australian-born engineer, will replace David Wolf aboard the space station. Endeavour is due at Mir on Saturday.
“We begin ’98 sending our last astronaut for his stay on Mir,” a launch controller said moments before liftoff. “We’re going to howl for the Wolfman.”
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