Posted on 04/17/2004 4:50:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -
A spacecraft that will carry a new crew to the international space station was hoisted into launch position Saturday in preparation for the third manned mission to the orbital outpost since NASA (news - web sites)'s shuttle disaster sidelined the U.S. space fleet.
The 132-foot rocket topped by a Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft was carefully rolled out of a hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome and slowly drawn by rail to the launch site for manned space missions.
Police and two fire engines escorted the rocket on its two-hour journey. A sniffer dog ran ahead of the train checking the track for explosives.
Russian Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, American astronaut Michael Fincke and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers are to blast off Monday aboard the spacecraft on the third manned mission to the orbital outpost since the halt of the U.S. shuttle program following the February 2003 Columbia disaster.
With the U.S. space fleet sidelined, Russia's non-reusable rockets are the only means of delivering astronauts and cargo to the space station.
But burdened with the task of getting astronauts to and from the space station, the cash-strapped Russian space agency has had to put on hold construction of its own segment of the international space station and some commercial projects.
And with the Soyuz only capable of carrying limited cargo loads and three astronauts at a time, the assembly of the space station has slowed considerably.
NASA spokesman Rob Navias said Saturday at Baikonur that shuttle flights might resume "by this time next year."
But the "Soyuz will still be an important part of how we send crews up and down," he said.
The cash-strapped Russians, however, want the United States to share the cost of the Soyuz launches, an arrangement that Navias said NASA was not currently considering.
But Navias said NASA was reviewing a request from Russia to extend crew missions on the station from six months to one year.
Such a move would free up Russia space resources, allowing the country to raise money by giving rides to well-heeled space tourists who are willing to pay top dollar for a brief dash to the stars, said Sergei Gorbunov, chief spokesman for Rosaviakosmosb, the Russian space agency.
"We have nowhere to take money from," Gorbunov said.
Still, "Russia has been up to every obligation that we've asked them for" and NASA plans to decide in the next few weeks whether to keep astronauts on the space station for longer, Novias said.
The grounding of the U.S. shuttles has also hampered European Space Agency programs.
The Europeans do not have the means to fly their own manned missions and need the shuttle to deliver its scientific module, Columbus, to the international space station.
The Columbus module is the most complex of the planned space station modules.
"We are in a difficult position," Michel Tognini, chief of the squad of European astronauts, said in Baikonur.
Padalka and Fincke, who were initially trained to fly on a U.S. shuttle, will spend 183 days on the space station. Kuipers will return after nine days with the station's current crew, U.S. astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, who have been working there since October.
Despite the Soyuz's limited usefulness, it still has its fans.
"It's beautiful, like a sleeping woman," said Petr Kalinin, the chief neurologist of the Central Aviation Military Hospital in Moscow, who came to Baikonur to see the launch.
"You've got to see it when it wakes up. Nobody else has anything like this," he said as the rocket rolled by.
When the rocket got to the launch site, a military helicopter circled above as workers hoisted the spacecraft into position on the dusty steppes of western Kazakhstan.
Russian police officer guards the Russian Soyuz TMA-4 booster rocket, that will carry the three-man crew to the international space station while the rocket is transported to the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 17, 2004. The rocket is scheduled to blast off on Monday, April. 19, 2004. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
The Soyuz rocket that will carry three astronauts to the International Space Station (news - web sites) (ISS) was on its launch pad. Russian Gennady Padalka, American Mikhael Fincke and Dutchman Andre Kuipers will blast off on Monday from Russia's Yury Gagarin launch pad, which took the first man into space in 1961.(AFP/File/Yuri Kadobnov)
The Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft stands on its launch pad at Baikonur cosmodrome, April 17, 2004. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka of Russia, Andre Kuipers of Netherlands and Michael Fincke of the United States are to blast off to the International Space Station (news - web sites) from Baikonur cosmodrome on April 19. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Russian police officers guard the Russian Soyuz TMA-4 booster rocket, that will carry the three-man crew to the international space station while the rocket is transported to the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 17, 2004. The rocket is scheduled to blast off on Monday, April. 19, 2004. In the background is Russian space shuttle 'Buran'. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
Launch and Overview Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke are set to take command of their new out-of-this-world home, the International Space Station.
Expedition 9 Flight Engineer and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike Fincke (left) and Commander Gennady Padalka.
Padalka and Fincke are to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 18 aboard the ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft and arrive at the Station on April 21.
European Space Agency Astronaut Andre Kuipers, flying under an agreement with Russia's Federal Space Agency, will join them on their trip to the orbital outpost. He will return to Earth with Expedition 8 Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri aboard the ISS Soyuz 7 spacecraft. After nine days of joint operations and handover activities with the Expedition 8 crew, Padalka and Fincke will spend about six months aboard the Station. In addition to maintaining Station operations and continuing scientific research, Expedition 9's tour of duty will feature two spacewalks and the arrival of two Progress resupply vehicles. Expedition 9 will be the third two-person ISS crew. Padalka, a colonel in the Russian air force, is a space flight veteran who spent 198 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1999. Fincke is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, and Expedition 9 will be his first trip to space. He is excited about the opportunity. "In life, I don't think we always get a chance for our dreams to come true," he said during a preflight interview. "But I can tell you, right here and right now, that I'm living my dream. I've always dreamed of being an astronaut, and now I'm getting a chance." Continued on Page 2: EVAs and Cargo Ships
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