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C O M M E N T A R Y
RUSSIA-U.S. SPACE UNION

MOSCOW, MARCH 12. /FROM RIA NOVOSTI'S CORRESPONDENT ANDREI KISLYAKOV/. -- Despite the obvious difference of the positions of Russia and the United States on Iraq, both are "doomed" to global cooperation. It is, above all, antiterrorism, the energy sector, as well as space exploration, where a more than 30-year experience of interaction has been amassed.

In the 60s of last century the United States and the Soviet Union began joint work in the field of space biology and medicine, as well as space geodesy and geodynamics. Its results let the two countries conclude in 1972 an agreement on cooperation in the exploration and use of space for peaceful ends. This agreement was spread on other areas, including the science of space, earth, search and rescue operations with the use of satellites and, lastly, manned space flights.

The first attempt at joint orbital work, which proved full "compatibility" of the two directions of space exploration, was made in 1975. Then, the crews of the American spaceship Apollo and the Soviet Soyuz opened their airlocks for "the historic handshake in space" and for performing the Apollo-Soyuz program of experiments.

In the 1980s, the United States and the USSR set up five joint working groups to coordinate cooperation in such areas as biology, astrophysics, Sun-Earth physics and study of interplanetary space.

In the 1990s the United States and Russia carried out close cooperation in manned flights and completed the Shuttle-Mir program, in which seven astronauts of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration made long-duration flights aboard the Mir orbital complex. This program let NASA and Russia gain international experience of complex space-walk operations, broadened NASA knowledge in man's prolonged stay in orbit and ensured the development of more efficient assembly technologies for the future International Space Station.

The unfolding of an orbital complex under the ISS program began on November 1, 2000, when the first Russian-American crew of three started off. In all, six joint expeditions have been to the ISS. They did a large amount of work in assembling the ISS structure, arranging the operation of its equipment and units, improving the radiation-protection system.

The Columbia catastrophe has brought to foreground the mutual necessity for cooperation. As a result of this catastrophe, the American orbital shuttles have been earth-bound and the stay of live-in crews in the ISS is in jeopardy.

Only Russian spaceships can save the project. Alas, owing to the chronical lack of financing for space-related enterprises, in 2003 Russia can send to the ISS only two Soyuz and Proton spaceships as suppliers and rescuers. Now, only one Soyuz spaceship is in the making, according to Valery Ryumin, head of the Russian portion of the ISS program. Since it takes two years to build a spaceship, the ISS may remain without supplies in 2004.

Yes, there is a simple way out - a rapid increase in the financing of assembly plants. It will de-freeze the head starts on Soyuz ships and appreciably expand the Soyuz fleet. If NASA gives a hand to Rosaviakosmos (the Russian Space Agency) by diverting the flow of money from Boeing to the Russian Space Rocketry Corporation Energia, the ISS situation will improve.

This was the pivot of the March 5 conversation between Georgy Mamedov, Russian deputy foreign minister, and American ambassador Alexander Vershbow. They talked of additional financing for the Russian ISS program from American sources. "We have a strenuous budget and cannot by a miracle get tens of millions of dollars to prompt our spaceships to the ISS," said Mamedov. He also recalled that American legislators artificially link this matter to relations between Russia and Iran, accusing Moscow of high-tech cooperation with the "axis-of-evil" state. "There is no connection at all. We are not violating international obligations on the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and think this linkage wrong," stressed Mamedov.

The fate of the International Space Station, and actually manned space exploration, is being decided at the present moment. The price of the question is high - the future of human civilization. Differences between our countries in other spheres should not stand in the way of cooperation in space research.

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