Shuttle Links Up With Mir, Brings Oxygen Equipment

HOUSTON — The space shuttle Atlantis slid up to Russia’s orbiting Mir station and docked Friday night to drop off equipment urgently needed to ensure the crew has breathable air.

The linkup occurred nearly 250 miles above the Adriatic Sea.

“Nice to see you,” NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger said from Mir as Atlantis, his ride home, closed in. “You guys look great down there. Beautiful, beautiful view.”

The two crews chatted back and forth in English and Russian, often drowning out each other on the radio circuit. They peered through the windows, waving and laughing.

Mission Control congratulated shuttle commander Charles Precourt for his “gorgeous approach and docking. It’s nice to see you back on Mir.”

“It is GREAT to be back here on Mir,” replied Precourt, who flew on the first shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1995. “It’s a beautiful sight out the window.”

The shuttle carried an astronaut who said his new home aboard Mir will be like boarding school all over again.

“At that time there were no girls and there will be no girls on board the Mir, either, for 4 1/2 months,” British-born astronaut Michael Foale said. “And we certainly had restricted freedoms. We couldn’t go outside of the school boundaries for very long and that certainly applies to the Mir also.”

The 40-year-old astrophysicist is NASA’s replacement for Linenger, who during his four-month stint aboard Mir has had to contend with a fire, antifreeze fumes, a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air, soaring humidity and temperatures as high as 94 degrees.

Linenger’s two Russian crew mates were eager to get the repair equipment arriving aboard Atlantis on this sixth docking flight.

The gear includes a new oxygen generator; detectors for fumes escaping from broken equipment; a valve for a spare carbon dioxide-removal unit that has yet to be built; lithium-hydroxide canisters to purge carbon dioxide from the air; and clamps, hoses and plugs for punctured cooling loops.

The oxygen generator is the No. 1 piece of equipment and will be installed in Mir over the weekend.

Primary oxygen generators aboard Mir broke down in March, forcing the crew to use oxygen-producing canisters similar to those believed to have caused the fire in the ValuJet crash in the Everglades a year ago. In fact, one of the Mir canisters caused the fire in February aboard the Russian station.

Several weeks ago, the Mir crew managed to get one of the oxygen generators working again. The new one delivered by Atlantis will replace the one still broken.

Launched in 1986, Mir has exceeded its five-year expectancy by six years.