* MIR 25 CREW LAUNCHED *

========================

French cosmonaut Leopold Eyharts and two Russians, Talgat Musabayev and

Nikolai Budarin, were launched to the Russian space station Mir from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz booster on 29-Jan-98 at 1633 UTC.  The

three man crew aboard Soyuz TM-27, known as Mir 25, docked on 31-Jan-98.

Musabayev and Budarin will replace the current Russian crew aboard Mir,

Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov, who will return to earth in a few

weeks with Eyharts.

        

Soon after the Soyuz lift-off, the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour undocked

from Mir after spending a few days linked to the complex to retrieve U.S.

astronaut David Wolf, and leave astronaut Andrew Thomas and supplies for

the next few months.  Thomas is scheduled to remain aboard Mir until May.

He is the last of a series of U.S. astronauts who have been aboard Mir:

        

        Norm Thagard    (Feb 95 - Jun 95)

        Shannon Lucid   (Mar 96 - Sep 96)

        John Blaha      (Sep 96 - Jan 97)

        Jerry Linenger  (Jan 97 - May 97)

        Mike Foale      (May 97 - Sep 97)

        David Wolf      (Sep 97 - Jan 98)

        Andrew Thomas   (Jan 98 - Present)



[Info via the ISIR Newsline Digest]