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Atlantis blasts off for Mir following NASA’s approval
CAPE CANAVERAL. Sept 26: Just hours after getting a controversial go-ahead from the US space agency, space shuttle Atlantis blasted off for Mir late Thursday with the next American astronaut to live on the ramshackle Russian space station. reports AP.
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin approved David Wolfs four-month mission despite pressure to back out before someone gets killed on Mir. then flew down from Washington for Wolfs dazzling departure.
Shuttle Atlantis Illuminated the sky as its booster rockets fired at 10:34 pm local time (0234 GMT Friday), right on time, and put the ship on a course up the East Coast and straight for a Saturday rendezvous with Mir. The space station was passing over Germany. on its 66,278th orbit.
when the countdown clocks hit zero.
Wolf, who s not due back on Earth until late January, looked and sounded jubilant before liftoff. He shook his raised right fist in triumph and shouted "Happy New Year, folks!" en route to the pad.
At a news conference 12 hours earlier. Goldin insisted his decision was not based on emotion or politics, but rather science.
He relied on two concurring, last-minute safety reviews conducted by outside experts
"We move forward not only because it is safe, but for the important scientific and hu man experience we can gain only from Mir." he said As we prepare for the June 1998 launch of the first element of the international space station, nothing can beat the hands-on. real-time training aboard Mir '
In recent weeks. NASA had come under increasing pressure from members of Congress and others not to put another American aboard. But US and Russian space officials had warned that if the United States pulled out. it would be an insult to Moscow that could Jeopardize the project to build the international space station.
Wolf didn't learn for certain until late Wednesday that he would be flying to Mir for a full, four-month stay Earlier, he had given Goldin "a resounding yes' when asked If NASA should press ahead.
"It's going to be a fun mission. It s going to be great." shut tie Mir programme manager Frank Culbertson quoted the 4 1-year old. never-married Wolf as saying
During its lO-day flight, the shuttle will bring back Michael
Foale. the fifth American to live on Mir. Foale has spent 4 1/2 months aboard the space station. In addition. Atlantis and its crew of seven will deliver a new computer along with other repair gear and urgently needed supplies.
Gen. Yuri Glazkov, deputy commander of the cosmonaut training centre near Moscow, insisted that he would never send anyone to Mir and "expose him to danger "'
Some people of the media say It s Russian roulette, something like that. Its not roulette." -Glazkov said. "It’s Russian ability to assess the situation. It’s Russian courage and self-assurance.”
Goldin said there are always risks in spaceflight, and NASA officials are "deeply touched" by the public Interest In the flight and fears for the Mir astronauts well-being.
But "the decision to continue our joint participation aboard Mir should not be based on emotion or politics," he said. "It should not be based on fear. A decision should be based — and is based — on scientific and technical assessment of the mission safety and the agency’s ability to gain add experience and knowledge that cannot be gained elsewhere."
Rep. F James Sensenbren ner. chairman of the House Sci ence Committee, which opposes sending more Americans to Mir. said he does not believe Goldin was unswayed by US-Russlan relations. What's more, he said he hopes the safety evaluations are "not a NASA whitewash of the many significant safety risks aboard Mir."
"We have learned from the Challenger accident that ignoring safety warnings can lead to
tragedy and a setback of space exploration for years," the congressman said.
At a hearing last week. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a member of the House science Committee. warned that Mir's problems "could lead to the death of an astronaut and greatly damage the American space programme." And NASA's own inspector gen eral also questioned the safety and value of Mir, especially since a June 25 collision that ruptured a lab module, wiped out half the US experiments and cut power on the 111/2-year-old station.
NASA already has paid most of the 472 million dollars to send astronauts to Mir over the past two years. Space officials contend it Is money well spent in order to avoid problems on the international space station, to be assembled tn orbit beginning next summer.