U.S., Russian Spacecraft Get Hitched Shuttle Docks With Mir Space Station; Astronauts Mingle With Cosmonauts, American Guest

In a dramatic glimpse of what the future may hold in space, a happy crew of Russian and American astronauts set up joint housekeeping in orbit Thursday after a flawless docking between the shuttle Atlantis and the space station Mir.

Shuttle commander Robert “Hoot” Gibson opened the shuttle’s docking hatch at 8 a.m. PDT as the mated spacecraft drifted 245 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

Mir commander Vladimir Dezhurov floated through the 3-foot-long docking tunnel to shake hands with a beaming Gibson, in the culmination of three years of planning between the two former Cold War adversaries.

“What you saw today is the first baby step in what’s eventually going to become a terrific effort in an international partnership to, I expect, not only build a space station in low earth orbit but to go beyond someday … and explore the universe,” said Wilbur Trafton, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s space station director.

Six more dockings are planned in the next two years to set the stage for joint U.S.-Russian assembly of a space station starting in 1997. Trafton said Thursday’s success should help build support for the $40 billion project, which still has critics in Congress.

After the handshake, the Atlantis crew - including two Russians who will take over in Mir - floated through the narrow docking tunnel like a celestial conga line, their cameras and cables in tow.

They snaked through a cramped Mir science module and on into the main quarters of the Russian space outpost.

There, in a remarkable sight, the Mir and shuttle crews - six Americans and four Russians - arranged themselves for a televised welcoming ceremony to mark the first docking of Russian and American spacecraft since Apollo and Soyuz capsules joined in July 1975.

Dezurhov, speaking Russian, said the event “is not just simply a docking. It also will be another politically important step to strengthen the friendship between the peoples of the United States and Russia. It’s good to see healthy, cheerful people at the station.”

Gibson responded in halting Russian: “Today we’re reaffirming our friendship after the Soyuz-Apollo flight. Together we will build a future based on cooperation, mutual trust and friendship. Today that is our true, important mission.” The crews applauded Gibson, who has acknowledged that Russian is not his strong suit.

In addition to Dezhurov, the Mir crew consists of Gennady Strekalov and astronaut Norman Thagard, the first American to spend months in space since the Skylab missions in the 1970s.

After more than 100 days in orbit, the three were enthusiastic hosts. As the hatch was opened, Thagard shouted across to his Atlantis colleagues: “You guys are upside down.”

The good-natured banter continued as the crews assembled in Mir. Strekalov had a kiss and an embrace for Atlantis astronaut Bonnie Dunbar, who trained with him in Russia for a year as a backup to Thagard. Thagard received a hug from Ellen Baker, a physician-astronaut on Atlantis who will help study the current biomedical status of the Mir crew members and the changes they experience as they return to Earth. Those studies and other experiments will get under way Friday.