ATLANTIS LIFTS OFF TO RECOVER U.S. ASTRONAUT FROM MIR.

Byline: The New York Times

The space shuttle Atlantis rose Monday to the rescue of an American astronaut, Shannon W. Lucid. Her return to Earth from a Russian outpost has been delayed more than six weeks by emergency repairs of the shuttle's booster rockets and by a hurricane that disrupted work here at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Under starry skies, the winged spaceship and its crew of six astronauts blasted off on time at 4:54 a.m., briefly turning night into day. The booster rockets apparently worked flawlessly.

Orbiting some 240 miles up during her long Russian stay, Lucid has broken records for the length of space flights by women and Americans. She has been on the Russian Mir space station for nearly a half year, since late March. Her delayed return, though a hardship for her and her family, is considered a boon for studies of weightlessness and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's exploration plans.

All in all, she has shown patience and good humor while waiting for her ride home, admitting that she craves potato chips.

The Atlantis is to dock with the Russian Mir space station late Wednesday, forming the heaviest structure ever assembled in space, about 250 tons. Later, in a crew exchange, Lucid is to enter the shuttle and her replacement, John E. Blaha, a retired Air Force colonel and veteran of four previous shuttle missions, is to board Mir for a four-month stay on the Russian outpost, which is more than 100 feet long.