03:07 AM ET 11/15/98
INTERVIEW-Russia adjusting
to space cooperation
By Adam Tanner
MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters)
The days are gone when the SovietUnion
raced the world into the cosmos and won.
Space exploration is now a matter of cooperation
between nations, embodied in the new International
Space Station whose first module is to take flight
next Friday. That project involves Russia, the
United States, Europe and Canada -- a whole new
way of thinking from Russia's Cold-War era triumph
when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
But a top NASA astronaut said in an interview
that he believes Russian space officials have
had trouble adjusting to the new reality, just
as some U.S. officials still hark back to the
heady days when they beat Moscow to put a man
on the moon. Michael Foale, a deputy director at
the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, who
flew aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1997
during a near-fatal collision, said financial
limitations may soon force Moscow to abandon
that 12-year-old orbiter and focus on the new
international one.
"It's just like Americans have a hard time getting
over the fact they don't have an Apollo programme
going to the moon," he said in an interview in
Moscow, where he and other top U.S. space officials
are awaiting this week's launch. "Those Cold War
days of just doing some national statement to the
rest of the world and the other side in the Cold
War are over," he said. "I think it's tough for
them to get over because they are remembering the
days of Soviet glory."
Despite recent mishaps onboard Mir, the station
has been the pride of Russia's space programme,
giving the country by far the world's deepest
experience in long-duration manned space flight.
"I think the biggest transition for Russia is to
go from the only country that has a space station
in the world to being a partner country for the
International Space Station."
Foale, who is a British-American, spoke during a
time when some Russian officials are lobbying to
extend the life of Mir, which the government has
said will be retired next June. On Thursday, the
head of the Russian Space Agency Yuri Koptev said
officials will again review the retirement date
next month. "If Russia can find the money to keep
the Mir space station up at the same time as
participating in the International Space Station,
that is better overall, I think, for all the space
programmes of the world," Foale said. "If the Mir
could be kept up by, say, some rich businessman,
that would be fantastic....(But) if it was at the
expense of the International Space Station development,
I would have to say that was a loss."
The U.S. space agency NASA has pressed Russia to
retire Mir as soon as possible because Moscow has
proved unable to fund their commitments to the new
station at the same time. As a result, the $60 billion
International Space Station is running far behind
schedule, with the first crew now set to arrive in
January 2000, a year and a half later than expected.
Foale, who won Russian praise in 1997 for his bravery
and cooperation after the Mir collision crippled the
station, said he understands why officials want to
keep Mir aloft. "Whenever something like that comes
to and end, especially if it comes back to Earth in
a fiery re-entry, it's a very sad and poignant moment."
On Wednesday, one of Foale's shipmates from the 1997
flight aboard Mir, Anatoly Solovyov, accused the
United States of wanting to bring down the station
for political reasons. "It is purely a political
question that there is pressure for us to get rid
of Mir as soon as possible," Solovyov, one of Russia's
top cosmonauts who has flown five times on Mir, told
Reuters. "It is clear why. Who has the station? We do."
Foale said Solovyov was a friend, but had not yet
made the transition from national to international
focus in space. "Anatoly was definitely stating it
in terms of the traditional kind of idea of Russian
and Soviet glory in space, where you don't do things
for any economic reason, you do it for the sign, for
the statement," Foale said. "The Russians will
understand, once they get past this year or so, that
there is something very positive about having joint
cooperation in an international space endeavour."
"A year ago when I left (Mir) basically less than
one third of the astronauts' time, the cosmonauts'
time, was being spent on science," he said. "We
were spending almost all of our time getting the
station back into a usable condition. It's a matter
of efficiency: you can do science on Mir, you can do
science on the International Space Station. Which one
will be more effective in terms of cost and future
development? I believe the International Space
Station at this point."
REUTERS@
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