MOSCOW - It looks like a bonanza for the
Russian space industries - the planned retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in about three years would make Russia the principal carrier of crews and
cargo to the international space station, sharply raising its revenues.
But some Russian cosmonauts
and space experts are worried. They fear the lead will be short-lived and will
slow development of what's really needed - a replacement for the veteran Soyuz
spacecraft, the reliable but plodding workhorse of the nation's space program
for 40 years.
A Soyuz
blasted off over the weekend from the Baikonur cosmodrome carrying two
cosmonauts to the international space station, along with Charles Simonyi, a U.S. software billionaire who paid $20-25 million for a 13-day trip to the station and
back.
Russia currently builds two Soyuz
spacecraft a year for manned launches, and four unmanned Progress cargo ships.
The fleet is expected to expand to four Soyuz and seven Progress vehicles
starting in 2010. Unlike the United States' three space shuttles, they can only
be used once.
The government has been
slow to earmark money for a next-generation spacecraft, and some experts fear
rising demand for rides in the Soyuz could further slow funding.
"Building more ships
will divert resources from other projects," said Igor Marinin, the editor
of Novosti Kosmonavtiki, the leading Russian space magazine.
On top of that, the cash to
be earned from space tourists encourages authorities to send smaller Russian
crews into orbit, Marinin told The Associated Press.
Cosmonaut
Pavel Vinogradov, who returned from a stint on the international space
station last fall, said Russia already has reduced itself to being a
"space cabbie" -- although space limo might be a better description,
since Simonyi's ride costs him up to $1,300 a minute.
Vinogradov warned that
without a next-generation spacecraft, Russia could fall hopelessly behind the United States, the European Union, China and others.
"The Americans will
build their new spacecraft ... and we will be left behind with our old ship
which no one will need," he said in a recently published interview.
The United States is working on the Orion capsule which should be ready for manned flight
around 2015.
Russia's space industries are still
reeling from the post-Soviet economic meltdown, when they couldn't afford
modern equipment and suffered an exodus of workers and engineers.
Russia's space program survived mostly on
commercial launches of foreign satellites and income from ferrying foreign
astronauts and space tourists.
Government spending on the
space program has since increased thanks to Russia's oil-driven economic boom,
but the industry still lacks the money to design replacements for its
Soviet-designed boosters and spacecraft.
The Soyuz and the Progress
date from the mid-1960s, and Russian space officials stress their excellent safety
record and updated control systems, saying the only thing they share with the
original Soyuz craft is their exterior design.
But a Soyuz can only carry
only 110 pounds of cargo back to Earth along with a crew, sharply limiting its
ability to transport scientific experiments or equipment.
The Progress hauls about
2.75 tons of cargo to the space station, less than a fifth of the space
shuttle's capacity. The Soyuz's three cosmonauts must stay seated during the
two-day trip to the space station. During re-entry to Earth's atmosphere the
craft decelerates rapidly, exerting severe G-forces. Parachutes drop the craft
on the Central Asian steppes, making for a rough touchdown.
State-controlled RKK
Energiya, which builds the Soyuz and Progress ships, has long proposed building
a new, reusable spacecraft called the
Clipper.
Energiya says it would make
space travel more comfortable and cut the cost of delivering crews to orbit by
two-thirds. The Clipper, with six seats compared to three on Soyuz, could be
used for a moon mission, as well as ferrying space station crews.
Energiya chief Nikolai
Sevastyanov said building five Clippers would cost about $1.5 billion.
So far, however, Energiya
has only built a plywood and plastic model.
"The Americans, the
Europeans, the Japanese all are developing space technologies of the future,
while Russia is just marking time," Marinin said.
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