NASA astronaut says
you can't beat the Mir

May 29, 1996
Web posted at: 9:30 a.m. EDT

From Correspondent John Holliman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid is at the halfway point of her four-month tour with two Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station, and she says you just can't beat it. (256K AIFF or WAV sound)

"We laugh together (now) more than at the beginning," said Lucid. "We know each other well and understand each other."

Lucid's Russian colleagues also enjoy her company.

"She helps us out and makes hot tea," said Yuri Onufrienko. "And this is perhaps even more important than work."

The space shuttle Atlantis delivered 53-year-old Lucid to the Mir space station two months ago for a record stay in orbit. Lucid is the second American -- and the first U.S. woman -- to live aboard Mir. When she returns to Earth in August, she will have spent more time in space than any other American.

Lucid is conducting experiments on herself and her crew mates Onufrienko and Yuri Usachev with a new lab shipped from Russia several weeks ago.

While she said she has not noticed any psychological changes in herself or the Russians, Lucid said she is changing physically.

"The only thing I've noticed physically is the bottoms of my feet, the callouses," Lucid said. "I went barefoot at home. They've practically disappeared. There's new skin on the bottom of my feet."

The biggest problem with working in weightlessness is losing tools.

"You put things somewhere and then you forget where they are," said Lucid. "Or things have been put somewhere and you don't know where they are, and it just takes a lot of time to get everything together."

Lucid said there is nothing special about her; she is just the average person having fun.

She tried to get the Russian commander to fire his engines and send the space station to Mars the other day. But the commander said he promised his wife he would be back home in August.

Related sites:

• CNN's Space Exploration Page

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