ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609090061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's another day in space and another endurance record for NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid.
Lucid, stuck aboard the Russian space station Mir because of shuttle trouble, set a record Friday for the longest spaceflight by a woman - 169 days and counting.
She is already the U.S. space endurance champ, male or female.
``I will only be happy for Shannon Lucid,'' said Russian cosmonaut Yelena Kondakova, the previous female record-holder. ``It proves that women can work in space as long as men.''
Lucid wasn't expecting to break the record. The 53-year-old biochemist and mother of three grown children was supposed to return to Earth in early August via space shuttle Atlantis. But shuttle booster rocket problems delayed the mission by six weeks.
This week, Hurricane Fran bumped Atlantis' launch by two more days; NASA had to move the shuttle off the pad and into the hangar for protection.
``As long as Atlantis is in good shape, then I'm in good shape,'' Lucid said after learning of the latest delay. ``When they get here, they get here.''
The launch is now set for Sept. 16. If all goes well, Lucid should be back on Earth on Sept. 26 after 188 days in space.
A male Russian cosmonaut, Valery Polyakov, holds the overall space endurance record of 438 days, set last year.
There's a bright side to being in space so long - Lucid said she has enjoyed seeing the seasons change on Earth.
Kondakova, who lived on Mir in 1994 and 1995, said there's another plus.
``My life is easier on board because you don't have to do laundry there, you don't have to cook there,'' she said from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she is training for a 1997 shuttle flight. ``So I think that for a woman, being in space is kind of a vacation from home work.''
Except for a recent two-week visit by a French female astronaut, Lucid has had only Russian men for company.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. AP NASA administrator Dan Goldin talks withby CNBastronaut Shannon Lucid aboard the Mir on Saturday.
2. Shannon Lucid talks during a television interview from the
Russian space station Mir.