Russian spaceship docks with international space station

KOROLYOV, Russia (AP) _ A spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut docked smoothly with the international space station on its maiden flight Friday. <br><br>But the success was

Friday, November 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KOROLYOV, Russia (AP) _ A spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut docked smoothly with the international space station on its maiden flight Friday.

But the success was tempered by a warning that Russia does not have the money to pay for the next mission.

Flight engineers, space officials and crew relatives watched the docking on a large screen at the mission control center in Korolyov, just outside Moscow. They burst into applause as the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft moored itself to the station in an automatic docking procedure.

The Soyuz crew includes Capt. Sergei Zaletin, Belgian first flight engineer Frank de Winne of the European Space Agency and second flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov. They are set to return to Earth 10 days from now in another Soyuz, leaving their own ship behind as a new lifeboat for the station's permanent crew.

The liftoff, originally set for Monday, was put off after an unmanned Soyuz-U booster rocket blew up 30 seconds after its Oct. 15 takeoff from Russia's Plesetsk launch site. A foreign object was found in the rocket's fuel line, space officials said this week.

``We would never have done the launch if we did not have 120 percent understanding of what happened there,'' said Yuri Semyonov, the chief of the Energia company, which is leading Russia's participation in the international space station.

The craft was carried into orbit by a Soyuz FG rocket launched Wednesday from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz FG, a modernized version of the Soyuz-U, was tested in two unmanned launches prior to the manned mission, as required by the Russian space agency safety standards, said Valery Lyndin, a mission control spokesman.

The current mission also is the first flight of the Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, an upgraded version of the Soyuz spaceship that has been a mainstay of the Soviet and Russian space programs since its first launch in 1966.

``It was a special flight and we had prepared seriously for it,'' Semyonov said.

In comparison with its predecessor, the Soyuz TMA-1 features an improved control system and more comfortable seats that can accommodate larger crew members, Lyndin said.

The old Soyuz seats allowed for cosmonauts up to 6 feet 2 inches tall and 187 pounds, while seats in the new version can hold people nearly 6 feet 8 inches tall and up to 220 pounds.

``The new ship is good even for a stout space tourist,'' Lyndin joked.

The cash-strapped Russian space agency has sought to supplement scarce government funding by charging space tourists for flights. California businessman Dennis Tito paid the Russian space agency about $20 million for a weeklong trip to the station last year, and South African Mark Shuttleworth followed suit in April.

Russian space officials hoped 'N Sync singer Lance Bass would fly on the current mission. He trained at the Russian cosmonaut center but was bumped from the crew and replaced by Lonchakov after his sponsors missed several payment deadlines.

Semyonov said the government funds allocated for the next year are only 25 percent of what is needed to meet Russia's commitments under the International Space Station project.

``We are short of funds to complete the spaceships, and the situation with booster rockets is even worse,'' Semyonov said.

He warned that if his company does not get funds quickly to complete the next Soyuz set to be launched next spring, ``the entire ISS program will collapse.''

Russia must provide at least four Progress cargo ships and two Soyuz crew capsules for the ISS every year, but the nation's space agency said last month the government budget for next year could buy only two cargo ships.

Nikolai Moiseyev, the agency's deputy chief, said Friday that the money problem was ``quite difficult.'' He said Russia would discuss the issue next month with other members of the 16-nation project.

The space station's crew now includes American Peggy Whitson and her two Russian crewmates, who have been living aboard the orbiting complex since June. They are scheduled to return to Earth on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour, which will arrive with a replacement crew later this month.