Cheers Welcome Shuttle Crew to Mir
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — In what sounded like a fraternity house after a big football victory, two NASA astronauts traded places in orbit Wednesday with the shuttle Atlantis linked to the Russian space station Mir.
John Blaha moved into the shuttle for the ride home after more than four months on Mir, while Jerry Linenger settled in aboard the orbiting Russian outpost for a similarly long adventure.
The arrival of the six Atlantis astronauts was punctuated by ear-splitting cheers and laughter. The two cosmonauts aboard Mir offered bread and salt, a traditional Russian welcome. The Americans gave them a bag of oranges as well as can openers--what the Russians had requested.
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