Russia Wants Larger Role in Space
Building a new Mir would be "absurd," and instead Russia should take a larger role in the new international space station as NASA scales back under budget cuts, the Russian space chief said Wednesday.
When Russia discarded the Mir space station last March after 15 years in orbit, some officials spoke about the prospect of launching a Mir-2. But Russian Aerospace Agency Director Yuri Koptev firmly ruled out the project as an "absurd" waste of money.
Koptev said Russia must concentrate on developing the 16-nation international space station, where the U.S. space agency NASA is being forced to scale back its contribution to research plans to avoid budget overruns.
In the past, it has been Russia that put the space station project behind schedule. But Koptev told a news conference here, "The situation may evolve in such a way that Russia could acquire the leadership in the project."
NASA's planned cuts would eliminate a U.S.-funded lifeboat for the space station and living quarters that would accommodate seven people instead of current crew of three. The smaller crew would sharply limit the chance for research at the station.
Koptev has earlier suggested that Russia could provide new living quarters and lifeboat at a fraction of the original U.S. cost.
Previously, Russian budget problems were the cause of delays; the service module, which houses the crew, was held up for two years before being put into orbit in July 2000.
Once the station became manned, Russia began pushing efforts to commercialize it by offering rides to space tourists. The first, California businessman Denis Tito, made an eight-day trip to the station last April and May for a reported $20 million. NASA strongly objected to Tito's flight, saying he would be a burden to the crew, but Koptev's agency got the upper hand.
U.S. and Russian space officials have since reached common ground on space tourists, and the next visitor, South African Internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth, underwent both Russian and NASA training for his flight set for April. Russian officials have not released the contract sum, but Shuttleworth said he would pay roughly the same amount as Tito plus some extra for conducting scientific experiments.
Koptev said his agency is mulling over several tourist candidates to visit the station in October. "The earnings provide serious support for the industry, the cosmonauts' training center and mission control," he said.