17 November 2003 22:30
Fears for US shuttle programme overshadow Russian space celebrations
[Presenter] The crew of the seventh permanent expedition were honoured at Zvezdnyy Gorodok [Star City] today. This
tradition has been strictly observed since 1961 when the first man went into space. Ever since then, after landing,
cosmonauts are first allowed to recover their health - then the celebrations start. The seventh crew has something to be
congratulated on. The cosmonauts carried out many scientific experiments, successfully tested the new Soyuz TMA
spacecraft, and even took part in the population census. Our correspondent Sergey Babayev witnessed the ceremony at
Zvezdnyy Gorodok.
[Correspondent] It is already 42 years since man first went into space. But each launch is still an event of global
significance. The crewmen who have returned from orbit are welcomed as heroes who have risked their lives. Yuriy
Malenchenko and Edward Lu - the seventh crew of the International Space Station [ISS] - flew to the station shortly
after the US Columbia shuttle disaster. The two of them had to spend six months working at a station which was designed
for seven people. But they proved there was enough time for scientific experiments and even for the first space wedding.
Incidentally, the newly-weds Malenchenko and his wife, Yekaterina Dmitriyeva, were the only ones whom the doctors at
Zvezdnyy Gorodok have allowed to break the strict post-mission quarantine.
[Charles Precourt, NASA's deputy director of ISS programme, speaking Russian] We can continue manned flights
until shuttle flights resume at the end of next year - hopefully.
[Correspondent] That afterthought spoke volumes. Not everybody is confident that the shuttle will ever fly again. The
resumption of flights is being constantly put back. After all, it is simply impossible to make such craft completely
safe. And it is unbelievably expensive to launch them. That is one reason why [Russian] space launches are still viewed
with such reverence. It costs 20m dollars to launch a Russian spacecraft, while the shuttle costs half-a-billion. In
order to put a kilogram of payload into orbit, you have to burn almost 100 litres of fuel.
Control of such expensive hardware requires special attention. And today's ceremony showed that the accidental
firing of the engines aboard the still docked spacecraft, which caused the station to rotate, has not yet been
forgotten.
[Yuriy Grigoryev, deputy general designer of the Energiya space rocket corporation] Yes, the general designer has
questions for Yuriy [Malenchenko] and he has asked us to warn him that he will find an opportunity to put these
questions.
[Correspondent] But the cosmonauts will not be punished even if they are to blame. After all, Malenchenko and Lu were
only there to test a new Russian spacecraft, having both lifted off and landed aboard the Soyuz TMA. This is already the
sixth generation, since Gagarin's Vostok, of Russian spacecraft designed to put men into space.
On Tuesday [18 November] the cosmonauts will fly to the USA, to see US doctors and to report to scientists on what
they managed to do in orbit.
[Channel One TV] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
