With only days remaining until he flies to Russia's rickety Mir, astronaut David Wolf finds himself reassuring family, friends and even his boss that he'll be just fine on his four-month mission.

No, it's not the worst job in America, as one TV show voted.No, it's not a suicide mission.

And no, "I'm not playing Russian roulette or spinning dice to see how many times I can do it before something bad happens."

The hardest sell is to his mom.

"I wouldn't mind if they canceled the whole thing," said Dottie Wolf.

Despite her fears, Dottie Wolf didn't try to talk her firstborn out of going to the ruptured, accident-prone space station when he visited her in Indianapolis last week-end.

She trusts her son and she trusts NASA.

"When a fellow's mother looks you in the eye and asks if everything will be OK for her son, you know the answer had better be the honest truth," shuttle-Mir program director Frank Culbertson told the House Science Committee on Thursday. "I told her everything will be OK and if I ever discover that it's not, he won't go."

The 41-year-old Wolf, a doctor and engineer, is scheduled to leave Thursday night aboard space shuttle Atlantis, barring another Mir catastrophe or a change of heart by NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.

On Tuesday, nine days before flight, Goldin called Wolf and demanded that he be honest.

"I want to hear from you, unpressured, how you feel about the safety, whether you really want to do this or not," Wolf said Goldin told him.

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Wolf assured Goldin that he was willing - and eager - to replace colleague Michael Foale and become the sixth American to live on Mir.

Two days later, testifying before the House Science Committee, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Inspector General Roberta Gross expressed concern about the safety of the aging Mir in the wake of a February fire, June collision, repeated computer breakdowns and other "serious problems."

Committee leaders recommended that no more Americans live on Mir, although space shuttles could continue to ferry supplies. They left the final decision up to Goldin.

That evening, Wolf spent more than an hour answering TV reporters' questions about Mir safety - an unprecedented use of astronaut time one week before launch.

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