Space Programs United States

It's November 1961. Enos is strapped into his chair in the Atlas rocket, hurtling through space. The 1 1/2-year-old chimp has been through a grueling 16 weeks of training. He's been tested, groomed and grilled to operate the rocket controls, in coordination with ground control, through a training strategy of rewards and electric shock punishments that guided him through the labyrinth of switches and buttons. Suddenly, it's the moment of truth. The equipment malfunctions.

The U.S. military has declared a no-go zone in the sea off Florida where a rocket carrying a top secret spy satellite crashed and has begun the biggest spacecraft salvage since the 1986 Challenger disaster, officials said. The U.S.

Space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth on Friday, bringing home the last American to live aboard Mir and closing out three years of U.S.-Russian cooperation aboard the aging space station. His body weakened by 4 1/2 months in zero gravity, Andrew Thomas was carried from Discovery on a reclining seat and taken to Kennedy Space Center's crew quarters, where dinner and a slew of medical tests awaited him.

Astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the orbiting Discovery-Mir complex crammed as much as they could into the departing shuttle, the last moving van to visit the Russian space station before it comes down next year. Discovery is scheduled to undock today at Johnson Space Center in Houston after four days of joint flight, bringing home the last American to live on Mir, Andrew Thomas, as well as several thousand pounds of Russian gear and a pile of sentimental mementos.

The critics started jawing right away. Why was NASA giving John Glenn a second ride in space come October? Privately, a lot of scientists who study the elderly complained that the medical rationale was a sham, that big breakthroughs rarely come from experiments on one human--never mind that biology done in space is questionable. Some historians suggested that the space agency was returning to a pre-Challenger notion of shuttle flights--as spectacle and entertainment.

Space shuttle Discovery was hit by a TV blackout Wednesday that could deprive NASA of live images of the final shuttle linkup with Mir today. NASA scrambled to work around the failure, which more than anything else was a PR nightmare. Because of the unprecedented trouble, NASA expects little if any live television of the docking or the rest of the 10-day mission to bring home Andrew Thomas, the last American to live aboard the Russian space station.

Space shuttle Discovery thundered into orbit Tuesday on NASA's last voyage to Mir, a flight to bring home the seventh and final American to stay aboard the Russian space station. The shuttle and its crew of six took off right on time and soared through a sweltering early-evening sky. "Poyekhali!" shouted commander Charles Precourt, which in Russian means "Off we go!" It was the hottest launch day anyone could remember.

Forget about joining the Air Force or earning a degree in astrophysics. If the X Prize Foundation succeeds in its mission, space travel may no longer be restricted mainly to the military or academic elite. A St. Louis-based, nonprofit organization, X Prize is offering $10 million to the first privately financed corporation to successfully send three civilian passengers into space, return them to Earth and complete a second trip within two weeks.

The space shuttle Discovery disconnected from Russia's Mir space station Monday to make its way home to Earth, bringing an end to NASA's often turbulent relationship with the aging outpost. Discovery slipped from the metallic grasp of Mir's docking port at 12:01 p.m. EDT after the last visit to the Russian station by a U.S. shuttle. The shuttle left with Andrew Thomas, NASA's last astronaut to serve aboard Mir. In three years, seven U.S.

In NASA's last linkup with Mir, the shuttle Discovery docked Thursday with the Russian space station to pick up U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas and deliver supplies. Operating with an automatic steering system that was repaired just days ago, Mir held steady as shuttle commander Charles Precourt guided Discovery toward the outpost 240 miles above Earth. About 90 minutes after the docking, the hatches swung open and a homesick Thomas was reunited with his American colleagues.