Russia must meet its obligations and occupy a worthy place in the International Space Station program.

Our task now is to meet our obligations under the most difficult, primarily financial, conditions and occupy a worthy place in the International Space Station project that involves 17 countries, Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Aerospace Agency said. The project is developing successfully and is very important for Russia, he said.

"The International Space Station is a step forward. If Mir stayed in orbit we would be unable to develop new projects and advance technologically," Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said.

The International Space Station project is intended for 13-15 years, during which time "the Russian economy could stabilize and resources for the development of Russian space plans could appear," he said.

The International Space Station became suitable for long missions after the Zvezda module was launched in 1998.

The first long mission to the station started on November 2, 2000 and has completed its program and returned to Earth in late March. Another mission is currently at the International Space Station that is headed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.

The mission includes NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms. They will continue installing equipment and integrating it into the control system, and installing vital life-support systems.

NASA said the first long mission by William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalyov was successful.

The end of the Mir space station will not have any negative impact on the operation of the cosmonaut training center.

Pyotr Klimuk, head of the Gagarin training center said that the closing of the Mir program would in no way affect the center's operations. Cosmonauts from the key missions to visit the International Space Center on Russian Soyuz TM rockets have been scheduled for more than three years.

Russian cosmonauts will also be included in U.S. Shuttle missions that will take replacements to the International Space station. All of the cosmonauts and astronauts are training in Zvyozdny Gorodok outside of Moscow and at the Lyndon B. Johnson Center in Houston, Texas.

Klimuk said that 95 people, including 55 from foreign countries, would train at the Gagarin center this year for International Space Station missions. This is a very heavy schedule, far greater than that in previous years, he said.

Klimuk said that the Gagarin center has all of the training equipment needed to prepare for missions to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonauts regularly participate in training in Houston at modules for the American segment of the station, he said.

Russia's obligations include supplying Soyuz TM rescue rockets and under a contract for NASA building new updated Soyuz TMA rockets, he said.

Klimuk said that foreign astronauts would be included in Russian piloted missions on a commercial basis. French astronaut and representative of the European Space Agency Claudie Andre-Deshay will be part of a mission next autumn.

The most fundamental moment in Russian missions to the International Space Station will be the first space tourist, American financier Dennis Tito, Klimuk said. NASA has yet to approve his visit to the International Space Station.

NASA also did not admit Tito to training in Houston March 19 - 24, saying it didn't want to allow a tourist to visit the station while it was still under construction. NASA said the presence of an amateur astronaut could interfere with the mission.

Russia plans to insist that Tito be allowed to visit the International Space Station. Russian Aerospace Agency head Yuri Koptev said that if Russia goes back on its promise it would be demonstrating its undependability as a business partner.

Moreover, the agency would take a fairly heavy loss. Tito signed a $20 million contract. The cosmonaut training center is able to guarantee the safety not only of professional but of amateur cosmonauts, he said.

Tito, 60 years old, completed a U.S. aerospace university and was involved in unpiloted NASA programs for five years, namely the probes sent to Mars and Venus. Tito later set up his own company that applied aerospace technology. Tito originally planned to be part of a mission to Mir.

Koptev said that Tito's flight as part of a Russian mission had a fundamental political and economic significance.

The Russian mission control center has no less work now that the Mir has been retired.

It turned out that while work on Mir had been reduced to virtually nil, the mission control center's load has increased sharply due to a nearly doubling in the cargo turnover of transport missions to the International Space Center, Vladimir Lobachev, head of the mission control center, said.

This is partly because the United States cut financing for the space program and stopped building its own rescue shuttles and housing compartment, so Soyuz rockets will be used to service the crew at the station, he said.

Lobachev said that as long as the Russian Zvezda and Zarya are the main modules at the International Space Station it will be up to the Russian mission control to operate the station. The mission control center has as many contracts and agreements for 2001 as it did for 2000, he said.

In linking the future of the Russian piloted space program with the International Space Station, Russian specialists have some doubts concerning the creation of a full-fledged Russian research segment there.

Right now, after Russia put the Zvezda into orbit that can support regular long missions to the International Space Station, we are faced with the next phase - we must build a Russian segment of research modules, Anatoly Kiselyov, general director of the Khrunichev Space Center, said.

Cosmonauts must go to the International Space Station not for the sake of the missions themselves, but they must conduct research, he said. However, the first module of the Russian segment, the Zvezda, is not geared for serious scientific experiments and only provides living quarters for the cosmonauts.

Kiselyov said that the next part of the Russian segment being built at the Khrunichev center that will be launched to the International Space Station soon is also a service section that is not well suited for scientific experiments.

We need research modules, he said. The Khrunichev center has already developed a research module that could house Russian, European and American research equipment. But Russia is discussing the options and has not made a final decision.

The national piloted space program and the formation of a Mir-2 space station is being discussed in various Russian space circles.

Russia considers its obligations at the International Space Station a priority in its piloted space program. But it has not ruled out the possibility of creating a Mir-2.

Koptev said this would be a small station, several times smaller than the International Space Station that would weight about 500 tonnes once it was fully assembled.

Russia could very easily create a space station that would be periodically visited by cosmonauts, he said. It would be best to launch the new station into a high polar orbit since Russian territory is best visible that way, Koptev said. With the International Space Station tilted further towards the equator, Russian cosmonauts can't make a full observation of Russian regions.

Koptev said that the periodic absence of cosmonauts at the station makes it possible to conduct many extremely sensitive scientific experiments under automatic procedures.

The new space station is being discussed by leading aerospace companies. Koptev said that Russia could begin building the Mir-2 only after the economy improves. The station can't be built without budget financing, he said. So, for the next 10 - 15 years the future of Russia's piloted space program lies with the International Space Station.

Copyright 2001 Interfax. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by Interfax and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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