Soviet-French team lifts off into space

1988 - A French spaceman and two Soviet cosmonauts lifted off into space atop a Soyuz TM-7 rocket in a letter-perfect launch for a rendezvous with the Mir space station. The giant blue, white and red rocket blasted off in a launch broadcast live on Soviet television. Just minutes before the liftoff, the television showed a smiling bespectacled Jean-Loup Chretien chatting by radio with French President Francois Mitterrand, who flew to Baikonur.