Death-defying cosmonaut is crew's lucky charm

Published: Wednesday, February 1, 1995

By Marcia Dunn

The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. On his first trip into orbit, Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov almost crashed into a space station. Five months later, he was catapulted off an exploding rocket. Another time, he had to abort a spacewalk when a wrench broke.

Who would want to fly with this guy? Five NASA astronauts for starters. They consider Titov a good-luck charm. After all, he's still around to talk about his space misadventures.

The six are scheduled to board Discovery early Thursday on a mission to rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir. Titov will become only the second Russian to fly on a U.S. space shuttle.

"All the time I said I have good luck because we have two times for bad accident," Titov said. "Is good luck or bad luck? OK, bad luck if crew has died. That's bad luck."

Titov, 48, a cosmonaut since 1976 and a Russian Air Force colonel, has been waiting for this moment for more than three years.

Titov and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev moved to Houston in 1992 to train at Johnson Space Center as part of an astronaut-cosmonaut exchange. Krikalev flew on Discovery in February 1994; Titov was his backup.

Titov will talk via radio to the three cosmonauts aboard Mir as Discovery flies within 35 feet of the 100-ton station. NASA wants the practice before space shuttle Atlantis docks with Mir in June; that will be the first of seven Atlantis-Mir dockings.

During the eight-day flight, Titov will use the shuttle robot arm to release a science satellite and move two spacewalkers around the cargo bay.

Titov has far more experience than his American crewmates: He has spent 368 days in orbit, 366 of them on a single mission.

"He does not push anything of his experience on us. We have to actually draw it out of him," said astronaut Michael Foale.