In the Sept. 24 editorial “Time for straight talk about Mir,” you are assuming that working on Mir is more dangerous than riding the space shuttle. There is absolutely no evidence for that assumption.
Mir has traveled hundreds of millions of miles farther than any other manned vehicle– without a single life lost. The space shuttle has already claimed seven casualties. The shuttle must take off and land, which is clearly more dangerous than simple orbiting.
If Mir becomes uninhabitable, astronauts and cosmonauts can climb aboard an escape capsule and deorbit to Earth. The space shuttle has no escape facilities, and if it becomes uninhabitable, it is a virtual certainty that everybody aboard will die.
The most dangerous part of any airplane trip is the automobile ride to the airport. It may well be the most dangerous part of working on Mir is the shuttle ride up there. Space flight is dangerous, and Mir has a lot of problems, but U.S. astronauts may well face greater dangers on the shuttle.
