The winged shuttle and the sprawling Mir came together at 1658 GMT in the last linkup of the two space superpowers before they start building a new $60 billion space station together.

Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabyev and Nikolai Budarin and NASA's Andrew Thomas greeted the shuttle crew enthusiastically as the hatches between the two craft swung open at 1834 GMT. ``Andy, how you doing bud ?'' exclaimed shuttle skipper Charlie Precourt, as he reached out to embrace the Australian-born astronaut. ``Welcome back to Mir,'' said a relieved Thomas, who was eager to return to earth after more than four months aloft.

``You can't imagine how wonderful it was to look out the window and see a bright point of light on the horizon, which I knew to be the shuttle,'' he said. ``I spent the afternoon watching it slowly grow in size asit loomed up close to us. It was really an absolutely magnificent sight.''

The shuttle astronauts entered Mir a little earlier than planned so the meeting of the two space crews could be televised live via Russian ground stations.

The shuttle's TV transmitter had failed and NASA was relying on Russian cameras to record the visit.

A computer glitch on Discovery disabled the camera that would have sent back good, clear pictures of the meeting. The less advanced Mir television system stood in, sending back images from a less advantageous angle.

The mission's main purpose is to bring home US astronaut Andrew Thomas, the last of seven Americans to serve aboard Mir. Discovery is also ferrying supplies for the two Russian crew members of Mir.