NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid floated into Russia's space station Saturday night for a five-month stay and hugged her new crewmates, following a docking by shuttle Atlantis.
"I'm happy to be here," said a beaming Lucid, the first American woman to live on the Mir station.Atlantis slowly and gracefully moved in and linked with Mir as the spacecraft soared 245 miles above Russia. Two hours later, the hatches were opened and the six shuttle astronauts and two station cosmonauts embraced and shook hands.
"We just can't believe we're here," said Atlantis' commander, Kevin Chilton. "Mir doesn't look real, although it certainly is, and it looked gigantic on the way in."
The first order of business was moving Lucid and her gear into the station. Next came the traditional welcoming ceremony.
Chilton and his crew gave each of the Russians a chocolate Easter bunny, an autographed copy of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell's book "Lost Moon," and a blue golf shirt. The Americans got medallions and emblems depicting a docked shuttle and station.
It was NASA's third docking with the Russian station in less than a year; six more dockings are planned over the next two years.
NASA's communication lines were quiet as Chilton guided Atlantis into Mir's docking port. Until then, there had been almost nonstop chatter between the crews, in English and Russian.
Lucid couldn't wait to get inside Mir.
"I think it'll be a great adventure," she said in a TV interview from Atlantis before the docking. "I'll be doing things that I haven't done before, staying a long time in space and seeing how I react when I spend a long time in space."
Lucid had been preparing for more than a year for her five-month stay on Mir, 10 times longer than her longest space stint to date, and four times longer than her four previous space flights combined.
No other American has ever spent so much time in orbit; Dr. Norman Thagard spent nearly four months on Mir last year. NASA needs more long-duration space experience before it starts to build and staff an international space station in a few years.
Lucid, 53, a biochemist and the first woman to fly in space five times, is to remain aboard Mir until August, when Atlantis returns with her replacement, NASA astronaut John Blaha.