Tim Furniss/LONDON
When the US Space Shuttle STS71/Atlantis makes its historic docking with the Russian Mir 1 space station later this month, space exploration will have turned full circle. The docking, the first of a series of Shuttle/Mir missions (S/MM) is scheduled to take place on 25 June. It will mark the end of the space race between the two superpowers and the beginning of a new age - an age of co-operation in assembling and operating international space stations in orbit.
The STS71 flight is critical to the future of this co-operation, and especially for NASA, which continues to fight a battle in Congress to save its space-station programme. If the mission fails, NASA's problems will intensify. Russia, too, will be in difficulty, as it needs the USA to save its own space-station plans. Neither country can afford to go it alone. They need each other.
The plan is for NASA to fly a series of Shuttle missions, to dock with the Mir, to gain experience in working together on a space station, in much the same way, as will occur on the proposed international station, which will also include the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. These partners will also be looking closely at the STS71 mission.
The STS63 Discovery mission in February paved the way for this latest flight with a rendezvous of the Mir 1. It will be STS71 commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson's task to take the Atlantis in for the historic docking and handshake with Mir 1 commander Vladimir Dezhurov.
Apart from a symbolic docking mission between a US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in July 1975, there have never been joint manned space flights involving spacecraft from both countries - until now.
Source: Flight International
