Russia is obligated under the space station partnership agreement to provide a limited number of launches and spacecraft for space station missions. But, Koptev said Russia needs money it cannot get from its own government to pay for the new vehicles that will be needed in place of shuttle flights to keep the station operational into 2004.

It normally takes Rocket Space Corporation Energia of Korolev 18 months to build one Progress-M spacecraft from scratch, an Energia official said in an interview.

Energia can shorten that production cycle to 14 months, Koptev said.

Even so, Rosaviakosmos still needs extra money to build the additional Progress spacecraft that will be needed next year if the shuttle program remains suspended, the agency's spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said in a March 5 phone interview.

Where that cash will come from is far from clear.

A U.S. law known as the Iran Nonproliferation Act prohibits NASA from making cash payments to the Russians unless the president certifies to Congress that Russia is not providing missile or other sensitive technology to other countries. The law also allows the president to permit cash payments to Russia if it is deemed necessary for the safety of the station crew or the station itself.

However, since the days following the Columbia accident, NASA has not budged from its position that it will not be making cash payments to Russia for additional Soyuz rockets and Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

"NASA is not intending to seek relief from the Iran Non Proliferation Act," NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said March. 4 in response to a query about Koptev's pronouncement. "This is a partnership issue that we are committed to resolving with our partners."

Russia is obliged under the international space station partnership agreement to provide three Progress spacecraft for the ISS in 2004. With the shuttles grounded, however, at least two more Progress ships will be needed in 2004 even if the full-time crews are cut from there to two members as presently planned, Gorbunov said.

Energia presently has Progress-M's in the works, but most of them are in embryonic state and additional money needed to complete the extra two Progresses in time for launches next year, according to the Energia official.

While NASA will probably remain unable to contribute money, the European Space Agency (ESA) might be willing to pay additional cash if its astronaut Pedro Duque becomes a member of a full-time ISS crew.

Duque is scheduled to fly to the ISS in May for a 10-day mission as a visiting crew member. However, if he becomes a full crew member and spends about six months at the station as part of Expedition 7, ESA would be prepared to pay Russia more than it originally agreed to for the flight, Alain Fourinier-Sicre, head of ESAs Russian mission said in a recent interview.

At a Feb. 20 press conference Koptev also publicly floated the idea of making Duque part of Expedition 7 in exchange for extra cash from ESA.

Duque continues to prepare for the flight, but so are Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and U.S. astronaut Edward Lu.

The ISS Multilateral Coordination Board may decide on the actual crew when they meet March 18, Gorbunov said.