KAZAKHSTAN: NEW INTERNATIONAL SPACE CREW PREPARES TO TRAVEL TO SPACE STATION AS RUSSIA'S SPACE AGENCY SAYS IT WILL EXTEND LENGTH OF MISSIONS

Record ID: 402575

  • Title: KAZAKHSTAN: NEW INTERNATIONAL SPACE CREW PREPARES TO TRAVEL TO SPACE STATION AS RUSSIA'S SPACE AGENCY SAYS IT WILL EXTEND LENGTH OF MISSIONS
  • Date: 18th April 2004
  • Summary: (W4) BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN (APRIL 18,2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF SPACE CENTER 0.07 2. CLOSE OF EMBLEM OF BAIKONUR SPACE CENTER 0.13 3. SLV OF SPACE CREW AND DOUBLE CREW ENTERING PRESS CONFERENCE ROOM 0.23 4. CLOSE OF COSMONAUT 0.32 5. WIDE OF SPACE CREW 0.37 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) NASA AS
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN
  • Country: Kazakhstan
  • Reuters ID: LVA82WVJN22NJZXPBA77VCWIVQA6
  • Story Text: Russia's space agency extends missions to save money
    as new crew readies for blast off to International Space
    Station.


    A day before a new crew blasts off to the
    International Space Station, Russia's space agency insisted
    on Saturday (April 17) there was no choice but to extend
    astronauts' missions to save money.

    Russia has had the financial burden of being the sole
    lifeline to the ISS since the United States withdrew its
    shuttles last year. Extending mission times would free up
    places for space tourists -- who pay $20 million a go.

    Instead of being away from planet earth for six months,
    the crew may now have to stay on the station for an entire
    year.

    "We are leaving our families behind to serve our
    country and serve our planet and I will be missing my
    family very much but they will be waiting for me when I
    return," Nasa astronaut Michael Fincke told a news
    conference.

    At the cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan,
    the Soyuz TMA-4 craft that will transport Russian commander
    Gennady Padalka and NASA flight engineer Michael Fincke to
    the ISS was hoisted upright on the launch pad on Saturday.

    They will lift off on Monday (April 19) to replace a
    two-man crew who have been in orbit since October.

    Dutchman Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency
    will accompany them an an 11-day mission to conduct
    experiments, and return to Earth with the outgoing crew.

    Four million worms are being taken to the ISS for
    research. Another project, to examine how plants grow in
    space, could one day help to pave the way for humans to
    travel to Mars.



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