Word: mir
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...20th century's fiercest rivalries into a partnership for the 21st century. Thagard, 51, became the first American to be shot into space aboard a Russian launcher. And after a two-day ride on the Soyuz, the physician-astronaut became the first American to take up residence in the Mir space station, where he will study the effects of lengthy space flight on the human body. Thagard is scheduled to stay aboard Mir for three months, which will be the longest time an American has spent in orbit, but that won't impress Valery Polyakov; the Lou Gehrig of cosmonauts...
...June comes the grand finale of Thagard's mission: for the first time ever, a U.S. shuttle will dock with Mir, picking up the astronaut and his two Russian colleagues and making them the first people to leave earth on one country's rocket and return home on the craft of another. The docking and six similar missions planned for the next two years are just warm-ups for the space industry's version of the Super Bowl. Between 1997 and 2002, the Russians and the Americans, with help from the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan, intend to build...
Both space programs have had their share of bugs and kinks lately, and Russia's effort shows signs of the country's post-Soviet economic chaos. Mir's cosmonauts have occasionally run low on spare parts and even food because launches of supply rockets have been delayed or canceled...
...that was forgotten, though, when the Soyuz had its triumphant rendezvous with Mir. Entering his new home, Thagard got a welcoming kiss from cosmonaut Elena Kondakova and a traditional Russian gift of bread and salt. Back at the cosmonaut training center near Moscow, Thagard's wife Kirby and three sons had already celebrated. As their hero made history, they ate the cake he wasn't allowed to touch before launch...
...terrorist trail continues to span the breadth of the country, from the fundamentalist cells of Peshawar to the violence-riddled commercial capital of Karachi, where the U.S. State Department last week ordered the evacuation of all school-age children of American officials. U.S. agents are still hunting for Mir Aimal Kansi, wanted for the murders of two CIA officers in Langley, Virginia, two years ago. He is believed to be hiding in Baluchistan, another center of lawlessness...