Space: April 28, 2000

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The Shuttle Atlantis is making an emergency flight to the International Space Station to fix or replace the batteries in the Russian Zarya module. This same kind of battery has operated for years without problems in Mir, but a new procedure used to charge them before flight apparently degraded the battery life to the point they must be replaced. The US will have to pay out millions for the trip to correct the Russian mistake.--Stephen V Cole