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Russian Space Chief Skeptical of Shuttle Fleet Return to Flight Timeline
By Associated Press
posted: 10:20 am ET
18 July 2003
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MOSCOW (AP) _ The Russian space agency chief expressed skepticism Friday about NASA's plans to return its shuttle fleet to space in six to nine months, saying he believes the break in shuttle flights following the Columbia disaster will last at least unt MOSCOW (AP) --The Russian space agency chief expressed skepticism Friday about NASA's plans to return its shuttle fleet to space in six to nine months, saying he believes the break in shuttle flights following the Columbia disaster will last at least until mid-2004, a news agency reported. "The resumption of actual shuttle missions shouldn't be expected before the middle of next year,'' Russian Aerospace Agency chief Yuri Koptev said during a visit to a rocket factory in the Ural Mountains city of Perm, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Koptev did not say why he thinks the shuttle's return to space will take longer than NASA says. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said Wednesday that NASA engineers were studying ways to make repairs in orbit if the space shuttle is damaged during launch. O'Keefe said they were also redesigning part of the craft's external fuel tank to assure that a large chunk of insulation will not fly off and hit the shuttle during launch, an event that is thought to have caused the Columbia to disintegrate on re-entry on Feb. 1, killing all seven crew members. "There is nothing that we have seen so far that will preclude'' a return to space ``in six to nine months,'' O'Keefe said. Pending the resumption of shuttle flights, Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have remained the only link to the international space station, which is now manned by a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. In the past, U.S. shuttles have ferried long-term crews to the space outpost, while Russian rockets have carried cosmonauts and space tourists on short visits.
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