51.   Sally Ride was the first female American astronaut in space.

52.   Seven American astronauts have worked aboard Mir in the past three years, they noted.

53.   Slated to blast off early Thursday, the shuttle will head to the Russian station, where two cosmonauts and American astronaut Jerry Linenger await.

54.   So far, at least four stays by American astronauts are scheduled for Mir.

55.   Story Musgrave is the dean of American astronaut corps and, before Thagard went up to Mir, had spent more time in space than any other American.

56.   The American astronaut Shannon Lucid was ready to have her return ticket to Earth punched, ending her record-breaking six-month tour aboard the Russian craft.

57.   The assessment of Dr. Jerry Linenger, the American astronaut who flew on the Mir this spring, is unlikely to give Congress much reason for comfort.

58.   The boat is called Glenn II, not after the American astronaut, but after another Faiveley passion, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.

59.   The American astronaut on board was left with his personal effects locked away in an unreachable sector.

60.   The collision also damaged American medical experiments on the craft, and rendered the sleeping quarters for the American astronaut, Michael Foale, unusable.