Web sites

For further background, information and photos of the MIR Space Station and the Shuttle/MIR programs, visit the following sites:
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/mir.html
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/shuttle-mir/
http://www.maximov.com/Mir/
http://www.osf.hq.nasa.gov/mir/

Find out about Mir's replacement, the International Space Station (ISS).
http://www.maximov.com/iss/
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/

NASA has quite a few sites which are large and complex but full of fasinating space material. To use them effectively you need a clear objective in mind before accessing them. But beware - much of the information is at a technical, rather than a general interest level.

a) The NASA Kennedy Space Centre Home page is at:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov:80/

c) The NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

d) Information about the Magellan Mission to Venus is at:
http://www.sel.bldrdoc.gov

Also try the following two sites and log on with the user name 'anonymous' (no quotes) and enter your e-mail address as the password:
a) ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao
b) ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/statrpt/ksc

More general information on space is available from:
a) the Nine Planets site at:
http://www.ex.ac.uk/public_html/nineplanets/

b) the Space Telescope site:
http://www.stsci.edu/top.html

Radio contact

You can listen in to MIR if you have the right radio equipment. Listen as the spacecraft passes over the UK on:

145.550 MHz: for MIR
145.840 MHz: for the Space Shuttle

Telephone information

Telephone the free Science Line service for an update on when the MIR space station is visible from the UK: 0800 282845

Articles and books

More information about the 1995 MIR project can be found in the ESA document 'Euromir 95: Mission to Space with Russia' which is available from ESA Public Relations Division, 8-10 rue Mario Nikis, F-75738 Paris Cedex 15.

To find out more about Helen Sharman. Read The Space Place by Helen Sharman, Portland Press, ISBN 1 85578 092 5 or read the transcript of an interview with her for Tomorrow's World (Resource sheet 4).