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| March
25, 2001 |
| Russia
To Pursue Own Space Agenda |
By ANDREW
KRAMER
Associated Press Writer
KOROLYOV,
Russia--Having destroyed their Mir space station under international pressure,
Russian space officials made it clear they would now pursue their own agenda and
not bow out of a conflict with NASA over sending a tourist to the new International
Space Station.
Pyotr Klimuk, chief of the Star City cosmonaut training
center, said Friday that California millionaire Dennis Tito, who has been offered
a seat aboard a Soyuz rocket when it blasts off April 30, would resume training
this weekend.
NASA is adamantly opposed to his presence on board the international
space station, arguing that he is a non-professional, and refused to let the 60-year-old
investment tycoon train at Johnson Space Center earlier this month.
The
Russian Aerospace Agency's decision to accommodate the world's first space tourist,
who has agreed to pay $20 million for the ride, highlights its intense need for
funds. It also reflects the agency's plans for the future, which include commercial
projects as well as fundamental scientific research.
With Mir gone, Russian
officials hope to use their 30 percent stake in the new station to make a profit.
``At some point, ordinary people, not specialists, will have to fly in
space,'' said Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. ``When aviation was just getting
started, it was also only professionals flying.''
Tito's ticket originally
was to Mir but it was reissued last year when Russia decided to junk the 15-year-old
station. Efforts in Russia to keep Mir going failed because of opposition from
NASA and a lack of financial support, and it went down in flames over the South
Pacific early Friday.
Energia, the company that built Mir, has said it
plans to design a new orbiter capable of docking with the International Space
Station for use by paying corporate customers or tourists.
Some Russian
cosmonauts have advocated building a new, purely Russian orbiter using existing
designs for the international station.
But Yuri Koptev, Russia's space
agency chief, said Friday that Russia would concentrate on its international obligations.
``The epoch of space races is over. The tendency is toward cooperation,''
he said.
However, Koptev also said Russia would insist on its right to
fly Tito to the station because the businessman already had a signed contract.
Dismissing fears of large-scale layoffs in the Russian space industry
following the Mir dumping, Klimuk said his cosmonauts' training center will grow
even busier with training foreign astronauts.
The Star City center plans
to train up to 55 astronauts and 40 Russian cosmonauts this year, Klimuk was quoted
as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
But many cosmonauts worry that
with Mir gone, cash-strapped Russia will be reduced to secondary roles to the
United States in space.
``People who were actively in control are now
put in second place as observers for the ISS, and I see them losing their qualifications,''
said a fomer Mir cosmonaut, Alexander Lazutkin.
Meanwhile, as computer
screens went blank in the Mir control center, workers said their futures lie with
the new station. Russia will supply it using Soyuz ships to ferry crews to and
from space and Progress cargo vessels to haul up food and equipment.
Alexander
Subakov, a mission control expert who helped calculate Mir's final plunge, went
straight to his new job at the Russian control consoles for the international
station on Friday.
``Nothing is eternal. There were no tears'' he said.
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