Russia Adamant Tito Will Fly

IRONY GOES ORBITAL

Dennis Tito exhibiting the levitating ability of a plane load of Greenbacks

Moscow (AFP) Mar 21, 2001
The Russian space agency insisted Wednesday it would honour its 20-million dollar contract to send US businessman Dennis Tito to the International Space Station (ISS), despite opposition from its Western partners in the project.

"We have signed a contract (with Tito) and we will honour it," said the spokesman for the Russian space agency, Sergei Gorbunov.

"The contract has no provisions for such a delay, which would cause financial problems."

The world's first space tourist is scheduled to blast off to the new international outpost on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts on April 30. The trip is to cost Tito 20 million dollars.

Tito is to take part in a 10-day space shuttle mission to drop off a new craft for the ISS and its current crew.

NASA said Monday that it and the European, Canadian and Japanese partners in the ISS project had informed Russia of their opposition to Tito's trip, citing concerns he will get in the way of the station's crew.

NASA on Tuesday said it is working to overcome the dispute with its Russian partner.

"We informed our partners about this trip of Mr. Tito before signing the contract with him and we had no response," Gorbunov said. "Once the contract is signed, we are told that the flight is premature and dangerous."

Space Adventures, the company that helped sell Tito the trip, says the 60-year-old former NASA engineer has already been through several months of training at Star City, Russia's cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.

The two Russian cosmonauts observed a 24-hour strike on Monday to protest NASA's refusal to allow the American millionaire on the trip.

Valery Ryumin, who is in charge of the Russian side of the ISS, accused the Americans of trying to sabotage the mission because they wanted to call the shots on the new international outpost in space.

"The Americans oppose the flight by their co-citizen because they want to show that they are the bosses who run" the ISS project, he told Moscow Echo radio.

"Tito worked for 14 years at NASA and he has carried out all the necessary training," Ryumin added.

The top Russian space official said that Moscow could not break the contract with Tito because he could "launch a lawsuit" and claim "a huge sum" in compensation.

Russian space chief is to talk to NASA chief administrator Daniel Goldin on Thursday to try and resolve the dispute.

If no accord is reached, the Russian foreign ministry will contact the US State Department over the issue, Ryumin said.

STATION NEWS

Russian roulette for fishing boats in Mir line of fire

AUCKLAND (AFP) Mar 22, 2001
At least 27 fishing boats are spread out across the area of the South Pacific where the remains of the Russian space station Mir are due to crash into the sea on Friday.

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