1.   NASA plans to retrieve Thagard, Dezhurov and Strekalov in early June as the shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station for the first time.

2.   Russian engineers have told NASA that their calculations indicate that the shuttle can dock without causing any damage, he said.

3.   The Mir crew will undergo batteries of medical tests aboard Atlantis when the shuttle docks with Mir.

4.   The rendezvous mission is considered a rehearsal for the first in a series of seven shuttle docking flights to Mir.

5.   The shuttle Atlantis will dock in June to retrieve Thagard.

6.   With Atlantis commander Bill Readdy at the controls, the shuttle docked smoothly with Mir late Wednesday.

7.   An American shuttle docks with a Russian space station high over Earth on Thursday in an extraordinary sharing of technical skills between two former rivals.

8.   First, though, the shuttle must dock.

9.   If Atlantis lifts off Friday, the shuttle would dock with Mir on Monday.

10.   It was the sixth time the shuttle docked with Mir, but this time the cosmonauts eagerly awaited the arrival of urgently needed repair gear.