TEXAS, May 17: The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis were welcomed to the Mir space station today with handshakes and hugs after the two spaceships linked up in orbit.

Atlantis docked with the sprawling Russian space complex at 0233 hours GMT on Friday. It was the US shuttle's sixth docking with Mir.

Less than two hours later, the hatches between the two spacecraft swung open to allow the now familiar handshake between a US shuttle commander and his Russian counterpart.

``It's great to be back here on Mir, it's a beautiful sight out of the window,'' shuttle commander Charles Precourt said, making his second visit to the space station.

Atlantis was carrying British-born astronaut Michael Foale to replace Jerry Linengar, Mir's current NASA resident.

The shuttle astronauts offered Mir's Russian crew, Vasily Tsibliev and Alexander Lazutkin, a traditional Russian welcoming gift of bread and salt, and brought Linenger the pretzels he had craved during his time in space. The 11-year-old Russian orbital outpost will be home to Foale, a 40-year-old astrophysicist, for the next four months.

Despite the problems, Foale, who holds dual British and US citizenship, said he had no qualms about living on Mir. He told Britain's BBC television on Friday that he was looking forward to ``living calmly and easily in space,'' and that while there were similarities between life on Mir and his time at a strict English boarding school, ``it could be a less stressful experience''.

``At that time there were no girls and there will be no girls on board the Mir, either, for four and a half months,'' British-born astronaut Michael Foale said. ``And we certainly had restricted freedoms. We couldn't go outside of the school boundaries for very long and that certainly applies to the Mir also.''