The space shuttle Atlantis on Friday sped toward a rendezvous with Russia's Mir space station, where American Mike Foale awaits arrival of his replacement, NASA astronaut David Wolf. The two spacecraft were to link up for the seventh time today, shortly before 3 p.m. CDT, as they race in formation more than 240 miles above the Earth. This week, the computer faltered for a third time in as many weeks. Each failure sends the orbital outpost temporarily rolling slowly out of control.
Power generation is disrupted until the control can be restored.
Shuttle ground controllers in Houston and those for Mir in suburban Moscow agreed Friday the linkup could proceed if the device faltered with the shuttle within 30 feet. If the computer were to breakdown at a greater distance, the Atlantis crew would likely back away until the device could be fixed. The Atlantis skipper seemed at least as eager for the orbital linkup as Foale or Wolf, whose participation in the flight did not clear final NASA safety assessments until the final hours before Thursday's liftoff. In February 1995, Wetherbee steered the shuttle Discovery to within 30 feet of Mir without docking as part of an elaborate dress rehearsal for the first linkup four months later. The thing I'm looking forward to is the last 30 feet.