Down-To-Earth Tasks Waiting For Astronaut

Earth to astronaut Jerry Linenger: Your wife’s car won’t work. The nursery for the new baby has to be set up. And your 18-month-old son needs his daddy.

Linenger is scheduled to return to Earth aboard shuttle Atlantis this morning after four months on Russia’s space station Mir. He will be reunited with his wife, Kathryn, who is eight months’ pregnant, and his son, John.

“I’m going to be busy. I just got an update today that her car broke down yesterday so I’ve got another problem,” Linenger said, laughing, from Atlantis on Friday. “I’m used to repairing things. I should do all right.”

He said the reunion with his wife and son will be “pure elation.”