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Sunday Morning News

U.S.-Russian Crew Prepares for Launch of Expedition One

Aired October 29, 2000 - 8:17 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Expedition One, the initial trip to put permanent residents aboard the International Space Station. It launches Tuesday from Kazakhstan.

CNN Space correspondent Miles O'Brien is there for the historic mission.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the misty moments just before dawn, the Soyuz rocket that will carry the first space station crew to their home far away from home backed down the tracks to the launch pad where it all began. Forty years ago next April, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the planet from this very site.

At the base of the historic path, they smiled and posed, the rocket pointed toward the heavens a little more than an hour after it left its hangar, all of this a study in contrast to the slow, sterile space shuttle crawl at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

BETH SHEPHERD, WIFE OF STATION COMMANDER: This would never happen at Kennedy. But I think it's really great that you can come out here and watch them do that. And just with the speed and efficiency that they do this is incredible. I just can't believe it.

O'BRIEN: Seeing is believing for Beth Shepherd, wife of the first station commander, NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd. He and his crewmates, cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, are here, reported in good spirits, on the cusp of their space odyssey.

They followed in the tradition-mandated footsteps of their predecessors, laying flowers at Gagarin's Red Square tomb, checking suits and seats for the proper fit, bearing witness as they raise the flags of Russia, the U.S. and Kazakhstan.

At the launch pad, a ritual of preparation played out with equal familiarity. The 163-foot Soyuz rocket has now flown more than 1,600 times, counting unmanned missions. It is a venerable design.

"The fundamentals of this rocket are the same they were back then in the mid '50s when it was designed," he says, "and it has proven its reliability,"

(on camera): At the top of the launch pad, underneath this protective covering, is the Soyuz capsule. "Soyuz" in Russian means "union," an appropriate name for a spacecraft that will take this unlikely partnership to new heights.

(voice-over): The vanguard crew will spend four months on a shakedown cruise of the $100 billion International Space Station. NASA, the Russians and the 14 other nations in the partnership hope it is the beginning of at least 15 years of continuous occupation at the outpost.

(on camera): Does it get easier at this moment, or in a way does it get harder?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'd say that now we have to start really working together. We don't have a choice. We've got our people living and working together, and we have to support them.

O'BRIEN: It is a tense moment for the far-flung partnership and for those who are more personally involved.

SHEPHERD: The first eight minutes is -- what can you say? It's a serious thing that they're doing. And, yes,I'm going to be nervous, but I'm excited at the same time. So -- and I'm not really -- I'm nervous, but I'm not really worried.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: The launch of the first International Space Station crew is scheduled for 2:53 a.m. Eastern time October 31st, Halloween. And unlike a shuttle launch, there really isn't much of a concern about weather here at the Baikonur Cosmodrome here in Kazakhstan. They will launch in all but the most strong of blizzards.

So we will be watching for that launch. They generally go on time with little fanfare. A little bit later in our program, Kyra, as you see me live via videophone, sort of a Miles Headroom look, I suppose you can call it, we'll be talking to an author who has a new book called "Voyage to Mars," Lawrence Vedrene (ph), and we'll talk to him about the latest on NASA's Mars exploration campaign -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, it's great to see you, Miles. Thank you.

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