Mission to Mir Page #2

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Astronauts are here in Russia,

training side by side with cosmonauts.

The first challenge to overcome.'

culture shock.

One of the reasons why I volunteered

for this program is that...

it would be a challenge to communicate

with somebody in a different language.

To find out a little bit

about life there in Russia.

These are the children of the new Russia.

They're also the children of cosmonauts.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Dezhurov

and his family live here in Star City.

This is the Russian space complex

in a forest on the outskirts of Moscow.

I really enjoyed my time in Star City.

It was sort of like

living on an air force base...

because it's a big complex

and it was very community oriented...

in a sense that most people walked

to wherever they were going.

They didn't drive cars.

Star City is also home...

to the only full-sized model

of the MIR station.

Now it attracts a steady stream

of American astronauts...

who are getting acquainted

with the station and how it operates.

Not only do they learn

every detail about MIR...

they do it in a different language.

In a typical day,

we started at 9.'00 in the morning...

and we would listen to everything

in Russian all day long.

There were weeks at a time

where the only English I heard...

was when we were walking

back and forth to class.

Charlie Precourt isn't Russian.

He's an American astronaut,

born in Massachusetts.

Now he's practicing in a Soyuz trainer.

I realized, when I started training

and met the Russians...

that if I couldn't go to the window

with a cosmonaut...

a guy who flew MIGs across the border

when I was on the west side flying F-15s...

and marvel at the beauty of our planet and

share that moment with him verbally...

I was probably doing myself a disservice.

Soon Charlie will share that moment

with these cosmonauts...

when the shuttle docks with MIR

for the first time.

Anatoly Solovyev, on the left,

has already logged...

more than six months in space.

Next to him is cosmonaut-engineer

Nikolai Budarin, making his first flight.

If anything goes wrong in space,

the Soyuz is their lifeboat.

Inside this centrifuge,

cosmonauts condition themselves...

for the forces they'll encounter

during launch and landing...

up to eight times Earth's gravity.

For cosmonaut and astronaut alike,

the zero-G experience is basic training.

And for a space traveler,

the training never stops.

The cosmonaut gymnasium

is a great place...

for all cosmonauts and astronauts

to get together...

especially at the end of the day.

Where is your power?

You'll find not just

Americans and Russians...

but there are people

from all different countries in Europe.'

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