Moscow - The crew of the Mir space station welcomed their first visitors in four months and took on board an astronaut, Andy Thomas, who may be the last US astronaut to fly on the Russian station.
The US space shuttle Endeavour docked with Mir at 20.14 Irish time on Saturday night, 390 km above Earth just west of Kiev, in the eighth such docking between the shuttle and Mir station. The astronauts and cosmonauts spent most of yesterday moving 3,350 kg of supplies and equipment through the narrow tunnel connecting their space ships.