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IMAX Film Recalls Mir's Better Days
by Doug Addison
No one will question Russia's mastery of long-duration space habitation after seeing the new IMAX film Mission to Mir. Cables and conduits run between modules; knick-knacks and personal effects are scattered about. And even though astronaut Shannon Lucid complains upon arrival of having no place to put her stuff, she quickly settles in and makes Mir her home away from home for an American record 188 days. After eleven years of cosmonauts coming and going, Mir looks comfortably lived in.
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Cosmonaut Gennady Strekalov plays guitar while astronauts Charlie Precourt, Bonnie Dunbar, and Greg Harbaugh join him in singing "Midnight in Moscow" aboard space station Mir in 1995. (IMAX Corp.)
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In grandiose fashion, Mission to Mir follows the United States' and Russia's first steps toward cooperation in space through the delayed space shuttle flight in late 1996 that brings Lucid back to Earth. In addition to stunning shots of Mir in space -- including a shuttle docking -- the IMAX crew joins American astronauts training for life aboard Mir at the Russian space program's once-secretive Star City. A Soyuz launch into the deep azure skies above Baikonur is one of the film's most striking scenes.
Despite the problems the beleaguered space station and its residents have battled over the last few months, Mission to Mir confirms the need for Americans and Russians to live together and learn from each other in space. The first components of Mir's successor, the International Space Station, will be launched in 1998.
Mission to Mir is the collaboration of veterean IMAX producers Toni Myers and Graeme Ferguson with Russian director Ivan Galin. Myers' and Ferguson's previous films include Blue Planet, Destiny in Space, and L5: First City in Space. NASA, the National Air and Space Museum, and the Lockheed Martin Corporation also were involved in the making of the film.
Find a list of locations and opening dates at the Mission to Mir web site.
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