Seven more Space Shuttle missions are scheduled to dock with the Russian Mir 1 space station.
Tim Furniss/LONDON
THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF the ten-year-old Russian Mir 1 space station is to be extended to 2000, with the help of two more Shuttle Mir Missions (SMMs) by NASA and an additional infusion of $200 million by the US space organisation. The original SMM programme was to have involved seven Shuttle flights and long-duration stays on the Mir 1 by four NASA astronauts, for which NASA had agreed to pay Russia $335 million. The SMM1 and 2 missions have been completed, and the SMM3 is poised for launch on 21 March (Flight International, 14-20 June 1995), carrying NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid, the first long-duration SMM flyer.
The new SMM8 and 9 flights will be largely for logistics purposes, but will also cost NASA another $124 million to fly. The SMMs 8 and 9 will be launched in 1998 - during the period when NASA and Russia will assemble the first elements of the International Space Station Alpha and man it for the first time (Flight International, 17-23 January).
Source: Flight International
