Conference 7.286::space

  An article in the Boston Globe said that all Ministries except defense
and atomic energy had already passed from the Soviet Union to the Russian
Republic. If that is correct, then it is now the Russian space program.

  George

I suspect that is good news, given that Russia will have the most resources to
continue.  However, it is bad in that the prime launch site for staffed space
missions in in Kazachstan.   (Good grief...I hope Florida doesn't declare
independence...)

Burns

    Here is the low down on the (former) Soviet space program from the man
    who ran the Space Research Institute, Dr. Roald Sagdeev. This is a
    distillation of an article that appeared in the December issue of OMNI 
    magazine.
    
    "The soviet space program is no longer looking for glory. It's looking
    for survival."
    
    "Buran was launched once. Being a costly enterprise, the project is
    likely to be abandoned altogether. From the start, it had no well
    defined mission."
    
    He says Energiya, which has only flown twice, is likely to be abandoned
    unless other countries want to use it. This is because the economy
    cannot sustain the cost of a project that needs that kind of lift power.
    
    " Even the smartest space program cannot support itself on a commercial
    basis."
    
    Gregg
    
    

RE      <<< Note 773.2 by DECWIN::FISHER "I *hate* questionnaires--Worf" >>>

>  (Good grief...I hope Florida doesn't declare independence...)

  I believe that they tried it once but didn't have much luck. I doubt
that they would try it again any time soon.  :*)}

  George

  The Boston Globe had a big article today on what was previously the Soviet
Space Program. The gist of it is that most of the Republics have signed an
agreement to keep the program going, but the Ukraine did not sign. That's a
problem since much of the industrial base for the space program was in that
Republic. They seem to have the factories that build most of the boosters. 

  The next biggest problem is that the agreement might not hold up due to
economic demands. The Ukraine use to supply the boosters free as their
contribution to the space program but now they would probably ask to be paid
for their services and products. 

  One interesting note was that one of the Cosmonauts will be flying longer
than planed due to the changes. One of the guys currently on board MIR took
off in October and told his wife that he would see her in 5 months. but because
one flight was scrubbed, he'll be up there several months longer than planed. 

  They are going to go ahead with many of the short term plans since most of
the hardware has already been delivered. They expect to go ahead with the
visiting German astronaut mission and the teacher in space mission. In unmanned
activity, they expect to go ahead with their Mars mission and Mars rover since
the hardware is already in place.

  Long range things don't look as good and their Space Shuttle and Energia
booster are "on the back burner" and most likely are in danger of being
canceled. However their visiting astronaut program may do well since they
get paid real money by countries who sponsor their astronauts.

  One big thing to look for will be the Mir core section replacement that is
suppose to take place soon. The core section has been up the longest and is
wearing out. If it is replaced, that will mean that there is commitment to
the station. If it is not replaced, the entire manned program could be in
trouble.

  George

Article: 39238
From: [email protected] (Wales Larrison)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: CIS Space Agreement
Date: 10 Jan 92 05:01:20 GMT
Organization: Universal Electronics Inc. (Public access BBS)
 
There has been a lot of recent discussion about the current state of
the Commonwealth of Independent State's (CIS) space program.  The
following is a translation of an agreement on the future of the Soviet
space program signed 30 Dec 1991 in Minsk by most of the members of
the CIS.  Note that while Russia and Kazakhstan have signed, the
Ukraine has not yet signed. 
 
        TEXT OF CIS SPACE PROGRAM AGREEMENT 

   The participating states in this agreement, noting the great 
significance of space science and technology for the development of 
the participating states in the Commonwealth; recognizing the need 
to combine efforts for effective space research and exploitation in 
the interests of the national economy and science, and also to 
provide for defense capability and ensure the collective security of 
participating states in the Commonwealth; confirming the need for 
the rigorous observation of international agreements and obligations 
in the sphere of space research and exploitation earlier taken upon 
itself by the U.S.S.R.; and feeling that the adoption of an 
agreement on joint activity in space research and exploitation will 
serve the interest of the participating states signing it, have 
agreed the following: 
   Article 1: Joint activity in space research and exploitation 
shall be implemented by the participating states in this agreement 
on the basis of inter-state programs. 
   Article 2: The implementation of inter-state programs of space 
research and exploitation is coordinated by an inter-state space 
council, which is being formed from empowered representatives of the 
participating states in the present agreement. Stature of 
representatives on the council is ratified by a decision of the 
heads of government of the participating states.  
   Participating states in the present agreement may have 
independent programs for space research and exploitation. 
   Article 3: The fulfillment of inter-state programs of space 
research and exploitation in the area of military and dual purpose 
(military and civilian) space facilities shall be ensured by the 
joint strategic armed forces. 
   Article 4: 
   Interstate programs for space research and exploitation shall be 
financed by means of proportionate contributions by the states 
participating in the present agreement, and shall be implemented on 
the basis of existing space complexes and space infrastructure 
facilities and of those being set up (the 'Baikonur' and 'Plesetsk' 
cosmodromes, technical, launching and landing complexes, areas where 
separating fragments of rocket-carriers fall to ground, space flight 
control centers, the cosmonaut training center, coordinating and 
computing complexes, data reception and processing centers, arsenals 
and other facilities). 
   The use of the aforementioned infrastructure for conducting the 
independent programs of the states participating in the present 
agreement is determined by separate agreements by the interested 
parties. 
 
   Article 5: 
   Expenditure on the exploitation of existing and the setting up of 
new space systems for economic, scientific and military purposes and 
the maintenance of the unique testing base(??infrastructure??), as 
well as profit gained from space projects and the launch of space 
apparatus carried out on a commercial basis shall be distributed in 
accordance with the proportionate participation of the states taking 
part in the present agreement. 
   States participating in the present agreement bear responsibility 
for their activity in space research and exploitation in accordance 
with the terms and procedure defined by a special agreement. 
   Article 6: 
   The states participating in the present agreement undertake to 
develop their activity in space research and exploitation in 
accordance with existing international legal norms, and to 
coordinate their efforts aimed at settling international legal 
problems of space research and exploitation. 
   Article 7: 
   The states taking part in the present agreement pledge to make 
mutually agreed-upon decisions determining the procedure for 
assigning proportional financing for interstate programs of space 
research and exploitation, for the provision of facilities, 
territory and material and energy resources, and for compensation 
for damages associated with the use of space equipment and also the 
procedure for the dissolution of the present agreement by one or all 
of the states taking part. 
   Article 8: 
   The states taking part in the present agreement pledge to provide 
the persons and facilities involved in the execution of interstate 
space research and exploitation programs with the necessary material 
and technical resources, to make payments under the system of state 
regulation and taxation and also to deal with the issues of social 
support and protection. 
   The participating states pledge to make provision for the 
allocation of the necessary funds for the implementation of 
interstate programs when compiling the state budgets, beginning 
1992. 
   Article 9: 
   The states taking part in the present agreement pledge to target 
the training of qualified specialists in higher education, the 
scientific research establishments and the Academy of Sciences to 
provide facilities in the space infrastructure with professional staff. 

   Article 10: 
   The states taking part in the present agreement shall not make 
decisions or carry out actions which impede the normal functioning 
of space centers and facilities in the space infrastructure sited on 
their territories. 
   Participating states pledge to retain and develop the existing 
scientific and technological and industrial potential for the 
design, construction, testing and development of space rocket 
technology within the framework of the adopted interstate programs. 
   Article 11: 
   Other states can join the present agreement with the consent of 
the participating states. 
   Article 12: 
   This agreement comes into force with signing. 
   
Concluded in the city of Minsk on 30 December 1991 in one original 
copy in the state languages of the states participating in the 
present agreement. 
   The original copy is kept in the archives of the Government of 
the Republic of Belarus, which will send the states participating in 
the present agreement a signed copy. 
   /s/ (Signed)  
   For the Republic of Azerbaijan, /s/ A. Mutalibov 
   For the Republic of Armenia, /s/ L. Ter-Petrosyan 
   For the Republic of Belarus, /s/ S. Shuskevich 
   For the Republic of Kazakhstan, /s/ A. Nazarbayev 
   For the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, /s/ A. Akayev 
   For the Russian Federation, /s/ B. Yeltsin 
   For the Republic of Tajikistan, /s/ R. Nabiyev 
   For Turkmenistan, /s/ S. Niyazov 
   For the Republic of Uzbekistan, /s/ I. Karimov 
 
[Commentary:  In general this looks a lot like the ESA/ECU agreement
on space activities - particularly in the proportionate contributions
and proportionate sharing of contracts/reimbursements. It also nicely
sidesteps the issue of a CIS military space program - allowing that if
such an inter-state military space program is set up (and funded
proportionally), then the joint strategic military force will perform
it.  Furthermore, each state is allowed to perform its own military
space activities. 
   It is also interesting to note this calls for space funding to be
provided, as determined by each state, in each state's 1992 budget.
From my limited purview, I haven't seen any funding for space
activities being approved by any state's Congress.  This may be the
achilles heel of this agreement, in that it does not commit to any
continuing CIS space effort.  Such continuing effort would have to be
coordinated through the CIS space council and each state's budgetary
process.  In the current economic turmoil in the CIS, this may be
difficult to achieve, although I expect some continuing level of CIS
space activities to continue.  Specifics are still missing, and may
not be known for several months yet.] 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wales Larrison                           Space Technology Investor 
--  
Wales Larrison
Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: >internet:[email protected]

    I heard on the news the other night that Russian space workers are
    going on strike for better wages.  Even the cosmonauts in the Mir space
    station is joining in on the strike.  Does anyone know anymore about
    this?

Article: 39794
From: [email protected] (Wales Larrison)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Russian space workers on strike?
Date: 29 Jan 92 05:32:24 GMT
Organization: Universal Electronics Inc. (Public access BBS)
 
Nick, this was originally directed at Frank Crary, but should also
answer your question.  Frank, sorry it took me so long to reply to this...
>>[... Regarding CIS Space Agreement...]
> 
>Only nine of the eleven republics signed. Most importantly, Ukraine 
>did not (they other "space" republics, Russia and Kazakstan did). 
>Does Ukraine plan to sign, or can we write off all their industrial 
>capacity? 

     The Ukraine did sign the agreement about a week after the other 
states did.  The agreement now provides a framework for future CIS 
space efforts, but there are still a couple of points which I still 
believe the CIS must resolve. We can't write off all of the 
Ukraine's space industrial capability, but we can't count on it 
being available either.  The CIS space council still has a couple of 
very serious issues to resolve. 

     First, they have to come up with an acceptable joint space plan 
for the next several years.  (Which I believe is in discussion). 

     Secondly, they have to get funding issues resolved.  From what 
I am hearing, the CIS space program has enough funding to keep going 
at about current levels (about 1/2 of last year's levels) until 
sometime in late spring/early summer - when they will run out of 
money to keep operations going.  When the CIS has settled on a plan 
acceptable to all of the participants for the short term, they've 
got to quickly find funding for it from each of the individual 
states.  This will be somewhat tricky....  

     As part of these "funding discussions", the CIS space council 
must also figure out the allocation of work and dollars back to the 
member states on the proportional basis of the amount of money being 
contributed (ala ESA).  Since the funding is not yet resolved, the 
allocation of work and ruples in "contracts" is also not yet 
resolved.  This may turn out to be a sticky issue since the Soviet 
Union distributed plants on a totally non-economic basis, so the 
current infrastructure to carry out the contracts will probably not 
match the funding allocations.  Furthermore, there is no broad 
market of 2nd and 3rd tier suppliers which can be tapped to shore up 
the infrastructure - and those left in existence are scrambling to 
stay alive in the current economic problems over there. 
 
     And as a related note, I have started hearing rumors that some 
of the major U.S. aerospace firms are starting to look around in the 
CIS for business "opportunities".  There are rumors of firms looking 
for facilities to manufacture/assemble jetliners, buy technologies 
(specialty metals, welding technologies, Soviet aero data bases, 
etc.), and to start to hire ex-Soviet aero and space designers and 
Engineers to get a competitive advantage in the world market.  
There's even a firm set up in the U.S. to "job shop" out ex-Soviet 
space engineers.  At a common wage of 600 rubles per month, hiring 
an experienced space engineer for $6.00 per month certainly looks 
attractive.... 
 
   But things are getting grim over there.  Apparently there was a 
strike threatened at the Kaliningrad Space Control center near 
Moscow this past week - during the most recent Progress launch to 
Mir.  According to Tass, a strike didn't take place, but the 
controllers hung banners complaining about low wages and poor 
morale.  Reuters quoted Stella Bugrova, a labor leader at the 
center, as saying "This is a warning action.  We are all patriots 
here and know the importance of our work. We won't do anything to 
put the lives or safety of our crew in danger. Only if all legal 
procedures failed...would we consider concrete action, perhaps 
limiting the scale of experiments."  Furthermore, according to 
Reuters, the protect was supported by technicians and workers at NPO 
Engeria, located nearby. "The cosmonauts are on our side," Bugrova 
was reported to have said.  Tass claimed the monthly salaries of the 
workers were 600 rubles - $6.00 at the Russian central bank rate. 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wales Larrison                            Space Technology Investor 
--  
Wales Larrison
Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: >internet:[email protected]

From:	DECPA::"[email protected]" "Tom Neff" 26-FEB-1992 14:26:45.30
To:	SPACE-TECH Mailing List <[email protected]>
Subj:	Armed clashes at Baikonur

Clashes at the Baikonur launching site, three people died
 26/2 TASS 105

Alma Ata February 26 TASS - by KAZTAG-TASS correspondent
Vladimir Akimov:

Clashes took place on February 23 and 25 on the military construction
unit located by the Baikonur launching site. According to unconfirmed
reports, the clashes were brought about by a conflict between a group
of soldiers in active service and an officer in connection with gross
violations of the manual. Three people died, several barracks,
official premises and food depots were burnt down and looted. In the
course of the events 35,000 rubles were stolen from the cashier's
office and 17 cars disappeared. 

By Wednesday morning, other Army troops had the situation under
control, but the situation is not normalized. Measures are currently
being taken to strengthen order and restore law. 

A criminal action has been brought as a result of the clashes,
according to Yury Khitrin, a state adviser to the Kazakh President's
apparatus who arrived to the troubled military unit. The Republican
Procurator's office is investigating the case. 

Moscow February 26 TASS - by ITAR TASS correspondent Roman Zadunaisky:

The incidents at the Baikonur launching site will not affect the terms
of the forthcoming space flight with the participation of a German
representative, chief of the Center for Training Astronauts, Air Force
Major-General Pyotr Klimuk told ITAR-TASS. Everything is quiet in the
town of Leninsk where the personnel servicing the cosmodrome live. The
launching site and all space equipment is on alert, he said. The start
of the spaceship "Soyuz TM-14" with an international crew on board is
scheduled for March 17 of this year. 

Article: 2105
From: [email protected] (JEFF BERLINER)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.hot.east_europe
Subject: Soviet space program, Russian cosmonauts go through space-time warp
Date: 11 Mar 92 16:57:27 GMT
 
	MOSCOW (UPI) -- When Russia's wandering spacemen return to
Earth later this month, they may feel like they've landed on a
different planet. 

	While Sergei Krikalev has been orbiting his home planet at an
altitude of about 400 miles every day for 10 months, his routine in
orbit may seem somewhat mundane compared with the changes launched
back home. 

	But the Soviet cosmonaut who was shot into space last May and
returns as a Russian cosmonaut at the end of this month won't even
land in the same country -- the Baikonur Cosmodrome is in newly
independent Kazakhstan, and the nations that once made up the Soviet
Union are making a 180-degree political and economic turn. 

	As Krikalev chalked up the days inside his space station,
Russians took time out from foraging for food and rounding up rubles
to wonder whether their wandering cosmonaut would ever come home. 

	And as Russia looked around the world for help out of its
economic abyss, idlers with their heads in the clouds wondered whether
Russia would sell the Mir space station, cosmonauts and all, or whether 
it might need to borrow a little cash for their return fare to Earth. 

	Nonsense, top cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, says of all the far-out
speculation. 

	Ryumin is a three-time space traveler and, as deputy director
of Energiya, the space-science-industrial complex, he oversees manned
space flights for the country. He also was a People's Deputy of the
Soviet Union, a job that doesn't exist any more. 

	But even though the country has been sucked into history, the
vast Soviet manned space program is sputtering onward and upward,
struggling to stay on course and badly in need of cash to fuel it. 

	Ryumin, nostalgic about the glory days of Soviet space
launches when cosmonauts were held in awe, acknowledged that times are
tough back on Earth for the Russian space program, but he predicted a
``great future'' in space. 

	Just back from the United States and preparing to host
American space officials from NASA, Ryumin envisions a future of
U.S.-Russian space projects solving environmental problems, such as
the ozone hole over Earth and pushing the outer limits of space
exploration to Mars in 20 years. 

	Still, present problems press on the Russian program like a
G-force. 

	When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the 11 republics that
quickly patched together the Commonwealth of Independent States took
time out from their political and economic preoccupations to reach an
accord on space. 

	High up in the ``Agreement on Joint Space Exploration and
Exploitation'' the republics say they ``may have their own exploration
and exploitation programs.'' 

	Ukraine and Azerbaijan didn't wait long before announcing
plans for their own space programs, as they did earlier for their own
armies. Kazakhstan, which has the major launch site at Baikonur,
showed no such interest, though there have been hints that it
recognizes the value of the real estate. 

	Russia announced formation of its own space agency, but it
didn't need to -- it simply took over the Soviet space program, just
as it did so much of the rest of the Soviet Union. 

	Although cosmonaut training centers and many space facilities
are on Russian territory, Russia's Plesetsk launch site is inadequate
for manned flights, and vital Baikonur is across a border. 

	``It is in the land of Kazakhstan,'' Ryumin said. ``Some sort
of agreement will have to be worked out so all the Commonwealth states
will be able to use Baikonur when necessary because if we do not use
it, it will simply be covered with grass since Kazakhstan has no
programs of its own.'' 

	Russia's solution so far is simply to pay for and maintain
Baikonur. ``Of course, financing is difficult. They give us less than
we would like to have,'' Ryumin said. ``Americans always say financing
of NASA is not sufficient.'' 

	But Russia's financial woes are so serious that Parliament is
scraping together money on a quarterly basis. Even though Ryumin
scoffs with irritation at suggestions that Russia lacks the cash to
bring Krikalev home, he acknowledges they have ``located money for one
quarter'' -- the period ending a few days after Krikalev hits Earth --
``and we haven't allocated money for the whole year.'' 

	``Of course, we are forced to make certain cuts and cannot
move forward at the pace we want to,'' Ryumin said. 

	While the world worries about the brain drain of Soviet
nuclear scientists leaving for better-paying, ill-intentioned
countries, Ryumin said he fears space scientists also might land
better jobs elsewhere. 

	``There are proposals, especially from European countries,''
he said. ``Undoubtedly, if there is not sufficient financing, huge
scientific collective teams will fall apart and will be very difficult
to put together again.'' 

	Some members of Parliament blame space and military spending
for economic woes besetting the country. 

	Until recently, Russian space advocates were unsure where
their boss stood. ``When (Russian President Boris) Yeltsin emerged
onto the political scene and became involved in populist actions, he
said, 'We don't need space.' Now his attitude has changed,'' Ryumin
said. ``That's gratifying for us.'' 

	Yeltsin recently named a director general for the Russian
space agency, and his choice, Yuri Koptev, promised, ``We are not
going to torpedo either manned flights or scientific projects.'' 

	Yeltsin discussed space research with President Bush at Camp
David last month, and Ryumin said, ``We hope that during his next
visit to the United States (the June summit), he'll sign a space
cooperation agreement between the United States and Russia.'' 

	Energiya directors already are eyeing the United States as a
potential partner and a possible Mir space station client. The Russian
space firm tried to interest America in the Soyuz spaceship that will
fly Krikalev home and also would allow Krikalev to zoom Earthwards in
an emergency or any time he wanted, cash shortages or not. 

	Building a standby ``rescue ship'' would cost between $2
billion and $4 billion, Ryumin said, adding, salesman-like, ``It would
be cheaper to buy one. We have no contract, but we had talks on the
subject.'' 

	Russia already has a few U.S. clients paying for Mir projects,
Ryumin said. He said commercial activity may defray costs, but Russia
is not about to privatize its space program in its headlong rush to a
market economy. 

	Germany is helping to foot the bill for the next Baikonur
space launch March 17 that will send a German cosmonaut into space
with two more Russians. They will dock at the Mir space station on
March 19, joining Krikalev and his partner, Alexander Volkov, who has
been there since October. 

	After a week together, Krikalev, Volkov and the German will
return to Earth, leaving the two new arrivals on Mir until the next
mission in late July. 

	And so the Soviet, now Russian, space program goes on. 

	As for Krikalev and Volkov, about once a week word trickles
down about what they're up to miles above Earth. They grow crystals in
zero gravity. They study their own psychophysiological reactions and
motor responses. They have probed the nucleus of a galaxy in the
constellation Canis Major, tried to shed light on a massive black hole
60 million light years away, peered down into a violent Phillipine
volcano, and walked in space. 

	The value of their experiments cannot be determined until they
return and the results are analyzed, Ryumin said. 

	Down in Russia, prices have skyrocketed, plunging much of the
population into poverty in the struggle to transform the collapsed
state-controlled central economy into a free market. 

	Every once in a while, the Russian media take time out from
covering economic growing pains and eruptions of ethnic violence to
worry about the cosmonauts, their work, their pay, their food and
their fate. 

	Space pay went up shortly after a Russian television
commentator mentioned in January that ``one of the most prestigious
professions in the world is now among those with the lowest wages''
and that space workers -- including the orbiting duo -- might strike.
Ryumin said Krikalev now earns about 5,000 rubles monthly -- eight times 
the previous cosmonaut wage and five times the average Russian salary. 

	But despite economic problems at home, not all has been milk
and honey in space -- especially honey. When the Progress M-11 cargo
ship resupplied the Mir men with fresh food, the Russian state news
agency Itar-Tass reported that the cosmonauts failed to get the honey
they wanted. 

	``It's difficult to get high-quality honey,'' said Valery
Polyakov, a former cosmonaut who helps devise space menus. ``We used
to get honey from former Soviet republics, but now they have quit
deliveries.'' 

	Krikalev has kept up with the news for the past 10 months,
Ryumin said, so he shouldn't have difficulty adjusting. ``The economy
is worse, but the climate on Earth hasn't changed,'' he observes. 

	Pondering the question whether life is harder up there or down
here, Ryumin said, ``A lot of things are missing from normal life, but
space life is temporary.'' 

	Then, reflecting on Russia's tough times, the veteran
astronaut observed, ``It's more difficult staying here.'' 

Article: 518
From: [email protected] (John Magliacane)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: Mirnews # 123
Date: 14 Mar 92 02:30:02 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: ka2qhd - Ocean NJ
 
Subject: MIRNEWS.123
 
SB MIR @ AMSAT < KD2BD $12218_PI8EAE MIRNEWS.123
 
MIRNEWS.123   27 FEBRUARY 1992
 
YELSTIN SIGNED DECREE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE R.K.A.:
 
R.K.A. stands for Rossiyskoe Kosmicheskoye Agentsvo, so Russian Space
Agency. For a long time the Russian parliament discussed about the
need to establish such an organization.  Its tasks and possibilities,
but also the relation to parliament and government, are almost equal
to that of the American NASA. Projects for space-operations have to be
submitted to that R.K.A. The R.K.A. investigates the project and
evaluates the need, necessity, costs and eventual contribution from
state-funds. Projects aimed to achieve political- or chauvinistic
prestige will not have any chance. After analysing a project this will
be send to the parliament for consent about eventual funding. The
president can put his veto on it. After consent the project will be
send back to R.K.A. R.K.A. asks for offers of firms, scientific
institutes, enterprises, national as well as international ones, on
the basis of free enterprise and free market and selects those who
will get the order(-s). After that R.K.A. has to keep control on the
execution of the orders. It will take some time before such an
organisation is operational and in fact it is already a little bit late. 
 
RIDICULOUS AND EXAGGERATED INFORMATION ABOUT BAD HEALTH AND MOOD OF MIR CREW:
 
For a long time, more or less caused by 'glasnost' and the bad
economic situation in the CIS-states, the (ex-) Soviet press
critically and even with denigration reported about their national
space exploration.  For a few weeks that same press gradually seem to
be inclined to change this policy a little bit due to a moderate
positive attitude towards 'space' of Yeltsin.  A lot of Russian
journalists still entertain grievances about the fact, that not a
Russian, but a Japanese journalist flew in a Russian space-station.
Average reports about space-station MIR are still below zero and a lot
these reports find their way to the West.  Regretfully the spokesmen
and public relations officers of space-organisations in the CIS are
still very passive and miss the skill and willingness of their western
colleagues to fight for their cause.  Negative reports, for instance
articles in Komsomolskaye Pravda, Izvestiya and others, are extra
exaggerated while proceeding along western press-channels. 

The cosmonauts hear a lot from western news-agencies and from
radio-amateurs around the world and sometimes do not believe their
ears.  On Febr. 17th Moscow-TV relayed a direct TV-session with MIR and
the viewers could see how healthy and active the cosmonauts were.  I
myself know by day to day observations that the crew has a very good
health and a high morale.  Of course they meet problems, technical
failures, even serious ones, but they always keep good heart and in
cooperation with experts on TsUP they resolve problems by repairing 
or replacing equipment or systems.  Radio-amateurs, who have the
possibility to communicate with the crew or to exchange information
via Packet Radio, certainly will share my opinion.  I will advise you
all:  Take all press-reports about MIR, not with a pinch, but with 
some pounds of salt. 
 
C.M. van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202
 
/EX
-- 
John A. Magliacane                 FAX  : (908) 747-7107
Electronics Technology Department  AMPR : KD2BD @ NN2Z.NJ.USA.NA
Brookdale Community College        UUCP : ...!rutgers!ka2qhd!kd2bd
Lincroft, NJ  07738  USA           VOICE: (908) 842-1900 ext 607

Article: 21554
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,sci.military
Subject: Post-Soviet Space: Chicago Lecture Friday
Date: 10 Apr 92 01:40:22 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (william.a.thacker)
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 
From [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
 
[mod.note:  Followups to sci.space. - Bill ]
 
            The Chicago Space Frontier Society
            together with Wilbur Wright College
                         presents
 
                Russia's New Space Program
 
                      Dennis Newkirk
 
One of the Soviet Union's proudest achievements was its vigorous
program of space utilization and exploration.  The future of these
efforts, like so much else in the ex-Communist world, is highly
uncertain.  Dennis Newkirk, author of the *Almanac of Soviet Manned
Space Flight* (Gulf, 1990), will examine the past and future
leadership and infrastructure of the Commonwealth of Independent
States. His topics will include: 
 
        Secret programs of the past
        Former Soviet management and industry
        Recent changes and future projects
        Outlook for international cooperation
 
                   Friday, 10 April 1992
                          7:00 PM
 
                   Wilbur Wright College
                    3400 N. Austin Ave.
                     Chicago, Illinois
 
The Chicago Space Frontier Society, a chapter of the National Space
Society, is dedicated to the opening of the space frontier.  For more
information, contact Bill Higgins at (708) 293-1050 or [email protected]. 

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

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        VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH ..............................   21   "

        Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS

VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH:                           [Mike Taylor, VNS Correspondent]
=====================                           [Littleton, MA, USA            ]

             Russian Oil Company To Launch Two Private Satellites

    A private Russian oil company called Hermes plans to launch two company
    owned satellites June 14 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome.  The satellites, both
    designated Pion-Hermes, were developed by Photon Samara Design Bureau
    under a contract from Hermes.  Lyudmila Kazieva, President of Hermes,
    said the satellites are to provide new data on the upper atmosphere's
    effects on spacecraft.  Kazieva said several foreign organizations are
    interested in acquiring Pion-Hermes data.

    {AW&ST May 18, 1992}

                    US Law Discourages Private Satellites

    Two large corporations have approached the US Commerce Department
    concerning licensing for private remote sensing satellites.  James
    Frelk, head of the Office of Space Commerce, said a major oil company
    and a major news organization have separate interests in orbiting their
    own satellites.  However, Frelk told a US Senate panel the companies
    are discouraged by current laws and regulations.  But, Frelk said, with
    the proper reforms, he expects private satellite flying before 2000.

    {AW&ST May 18, 1992}

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<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2594      Monday  8-Jun-1992   <><><><><><><><>

Article: 47105
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space,chi.general
Subject: Mir Cosmonauts in Woodstock, Illinois
Date: 7 Aug 92 18:32:49 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 
           MIR COSMONAUTS TO SPEAK IN WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS
 
Cosmonauts Sergi Krikaliov and Anatoli Artsebarski will speak next
week at the Woodstock Opera House, 121 Van Buren St., Woodstock,
Illinois.  Box office number is (815) 338-5300.  Admission is $5.00 
per person; tickets will be available at the door. 
 
Presentations will be:
 
Monday, 10 August 7:30 PM
Tuesday, 11 August 10:00 AM
 
They were on the crew of Soyuz TM-12 in May 1991, which brought
British cosmonaut Helen Sharman to the Mir space station.  Artsebarski
was commander of Mir during 5/91 to 11/91.   He returned home, but due
to budget constraints Krikaliov remained aboard Mir until 25 March
1992 for a 312-day stay.  (He has entered into folklore-- yes, there
is even a song about this-- as "the guy who was stranded," although,
of course, a Soyuz capsule was docked to the station at all times and
the crew could have departed quickly if any emergency occurred.) 
 
The cosmonauts will be bringing never-before-seen personal video and
photographs taken aboard the station, including shots of the Gulf War
aftermath from space, extensive spacewalk construction activities,
and, of course, the ever-popular "playing with our food in
weightlessness."  There will be a reception after the talk. 
 
                     ===========================

I attended a dinner last night where Artsebarksi and Krikaliov spoke.
I'm afraid I don't have time to write it up in detail now, but thought
you'd like to know that they're talking in Woodstock.  (It's a little
town about an hour northwest of O'Hare, pretty far from Chicago.  The
Opera House is right in the town square, so you can find it if you can
find Woodstock at all.  Nice little theater.) 
 
Other ex-Soviets I met included Dr. Gulsra ("Julia") Ospanova,
Assistant Minister of Health for Dentistry in the Russian Federation,
and formerly personal dentist to the cosmonauts and other high
officials.  She was on the barricades defending the Russian White
House during the attempted coup last summer.  I also met an engineer
from Energiya NPO, the "company" responsible for space stations and
the Energiya rocket, named Alexander Jereniotsky.  He designed the
memory-metal devices the cosmonauts added to Mir last summer.  It's
possible that these people or their families may be appearing in
Woodstock with the cosmonauts, but I'm not really sure and the box
office doesn't know. 
 
Krikaliov and Artsebarski will be attending the meeting of the
Association of Space Explorers in Washington, D.C., just before the
World Space Congress at the end of this month, so I may get to see
them again. 
 
     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [email protected]
   -   -       Internet:  [email protected]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS 

Article: 47360
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Tom Roach)
Subject: Marshal Krylov (SESS) visit
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 02:19:58 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
 
Last night I tuned across R. Moscow and I think I heard them say that
the Marshal Krylov (sister ship to the Space Event Support Ship
Marshal Nedelin) was in some sort of joint operation with the
Americans and was going to help recover some sort of object. 
 
I also thought I heard them say the Krylov would be docking in Seattle
at the end of October (I think). Mention of the Coast Guard as well, I
think this offers a unique opportunity to see this giant vessel. 
 
My hobby has been to monitor their communications (any Soviet
maritime) with special interest on the Academy of Science ships (NIS).
All very fascinating and there is nothing I would love more than a
chance to go aboard the Krylov.  I'd gladly fly to Seattle just to see
and photograph her, and would be even happier to meet the crew or go
aboard.  Has anyone heard anything about this trip? 
 
    "Forget about ultimate truths! Just abandon your preconceptions!"

				- Lao Tse

Article: 2650
From: [email protected] (CINDY SIMMONS)
Newsgroups: clari.news.interest,clari.news.interest.people,clari.tw.space
Subject: Cosmonaut longed for Earth like sailors miss their homes
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 16:30:18 PDT
 
	MADISON, Wis. (UPI) -- The man who holds the endurance record
for living in space said Wednesday he missed Earth like a sailor at sea 
longs for home. 

	Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was in space 10 1/2 months.  He
boarded the Mir space station in May 1991 for the Soviet Union.  But
when he returned to Earth on March 25, his former homeland had splintered. 

	``Yes, I missed the Earth, as sailors at sea'' miss their
homes, Krikalev told a Rotary Club meeting. 

	Krikalev said the Soviet breakup never threatened his return.
Anatoly Artsebarsky, the commander of the mission, said the space station 
had separate ships that could have been used to return at any time. 

	He said Krikalev was not originally scheduled to stay so long
in space.  At about five months a new team was supposed to go up, but
to save money, Krikalev's return trip was canceled.  There were other
cosmonauts in the space station during Krikalev's stay, but they did
not stay as long. 

	Both Artsebarsky and Krikalev still work for the Russian space
agency.  Krikalev said the breakup has had little impact on him personally, 
but he fears for the country because its economic situation is so poor. 

	Ed Durkin, the Madison Rotary member who arranged for their
visit, said he had to help pay for the cosmonauts' airfare to the
United States. 

	``They literally have no money,'' he said. ``In American
dollars, they don't make $10 a month.'' 

Article: 51969
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Head of Russian Space Agency Coming to Southern California
Date: 22 Nov 92  15:42:44
 
A friend had asked me to post this, since they need people to attend...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  
       LOCAL TECHNICAL SOCIETY BANQUETS
       HEAD OF RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY
       DECEMBER 2ND, 1992 IN HUNTINGTON BEACH
  
On the evening of December 2, 1992, the Orange County Chapter of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is
honoring Yuri Koptev, the director of the Russian Space Agency.
This banquet follows the first visit by Koptev to the West coast of
the United States, and highlights a whirlwind tour of local space
industries in Southern California, arranged by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
(45th Congressional District).
  
"I'm very pleased that the AIAA can host this event", says Dallas
Bienhoff, Chair of the Orange County AIAA section.  "It gives a
chance for Director Koptev to meet more than just a few executives
involved with Southern California's space industry.  The AIAA has
over 1200 members in Orange County alone."
  
Koptev was appointed to head the newly organized Russian Space
Agency in February of this year, by Russian President Boris Yelstin.
Under Koptev, the Russian Space Agency is beginning to radically
transform the Russian space and rocket program in line to better
meet the needs of the Russian people, to compete on a world-class
quality basis, and to slim down to within a shrunken government
budget.
  
Under Koptev, all Russian government funds for space activities are
now funneled through the Russian Space Agency.  Despite the serious
financial and economic problems in Russia, Koptev has managed to
secure funds to keep most of the Russian space program alive.  At
the urging of Koptev and other Russian space leaders, Russian space
products are now emerging onto the international markets, and
cooperative ventures with US and other international firms and
agencies are being formed.
  
The public is invited to this event.
  
The banquet will be held at The Waterfront Hilton, located at 21100
Pacific Coast Highway, in Huntington Beach, California. To reach the
restaurant, take Beach Boulevard south from the 405 Freeway to
Pacific Coast Highway.  Turn right (north) on Pacific Coast Highway
for approximately 1.5 miles.
  
The banquet cost is
   $40 with reservations by 28 November
   $35 for AIAA members)
   $20 for Students (or under age 18)
  
The evening schedule is
   6:00 PM  Social/Cocktails
   7:00 PM  Dinner
   8:00 PM  Program
  
For reservations call the AIAA West Coast Office, phone 800-683-AIAA
  
The AIAA is a non-profit organization representing over 37,000
members nationwide for aerospace, space, and aviation.  The Orange
County Section has over 1200 active members from major employers in
Orange County such as Hughes, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell
International, and TRW.
  
For more information contact:

  Wally McClure, AIAA Orange County Section Vice Chair for Public
     Policy,  (310) 922-4666 (days), or
  Kim Chilcot, AIAA Orange County Section Vice Chair for Programs,
(714) 896-3311, ext. 7-1204 (days)
  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
  
OC AIAA Rel. 92-02
 
--- Maximus 2.00

Article: 3983
From: [email protected] (UPI-Radio)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.science
Subject: Weekend Science Summary
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 93 18:09:10 PST
 
	(Russian space program)

	The head of the Russian Space Agency made a pitch yesterday
for more money from the government. 

	Yuri Koptev told a news conference that space ISN'T a luxury,
it's ``a necessity without which Russia WON'T be able to solve its
problems.'' But he says underfunding could prevent the agency from
carrying out planned projects for the 1990's... including sending
scientific probes to Mars, expanding the capacity of Russian
telecommunications satellites and building a state-of-the-art
replacement for the space station Mir (meer). 

	On top of that, Koptev says the Baikonur (BIGH'-koh-noor)
cosmodrome is understaffed and falling apart. The launchpad is the
only one from which Russian satellites can be placed in geostationary
orbits vital for communications. 
 
	(Russian space experiment)

	Ironically, the plea for money comes one day after two
cosmonauts aboard the space station Mir used a space mirror to reflect
sunlight on a pre-dawn Europe. 

	The entire experiment Thursday lasted nearly five hours and
cut a swath of light across a still-dark Europe. But Russian space
agency officials say anyone on the ground in the path of the moving
light streak would've noticed it for merely a second. 

	The experiment was designed to see whether reflected sunlight
could be beamed to Earth to light up dark polar regions or disaster areas. 

	end science-weekend

Article: 3197
From: [email protected] (GUY CHAZAN)
Newsgroups: clari.biz.economy.world,clari.biz.features
Subject: Soviet rockets to launch American-made satellites
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 21:08:09 EST
 
_R_e_s_t_r_i_c_t_i_o_n_s _e_a_s_e
_o_n _h_i_g_h_-_t_e_c_h
_e_x_p_o_r_t_s _t_o _R_u_s_s_i_a 
	
 _U_P_I _B_u_s_i_n_e_s_s _W_o_r_l_d
 
	MOSCOW (UPI) -- The Cold War era restrictions on the export of high-
technology goods to Russia are beginning to break down, to the delight
of Russian companies eager for a chunk of the burgeoning market in space
services.

	Last month a deal was struck between Motorola Inc., headquartered in
Schaumburg, Ill., and the Moscow-based Khrunichev rocket factory,
allowing American-made satellites into Russia for the first time and
giving a new lease on life to the country's struggling space industry.

	Three Proton launch rockets -- the backbone of Russia's communications
satellite system produced by the Khrunichev plant since 1965 -- will be
used to launch 21 Motorola satellites for the U.S. company's Iridium
global high-tech communications system in a deal worth $200 million.

	Motorola's $3.37 billion Iridium network is to include 66 low-earth-
orbit satellites that will link the world through wireless telephones,
pagers and modems.

	The contract is a boon for Russia's aerospace complex, which is
reeling from sharply curtailed state orders as the economy staggers
toward a free market and previously pampered defense and space factories
are forced to go it alone.

	The Motorola venture gives a huge boost to the Khrunichev factory,
the heir to the Soviet space program that put Sputnik, the world's first
artificial satellite, into orbit in 1957 and built the Mir space station.

	But the deal is significant in another way. It marks the first time a
U.S. company has overcome tough export controls, which were imposed at
the start of the Cold War and have hampered Western trade with the
countries of Eastern Europe ever since.

	``This is the first time the U.S. government through a private firm
has removed these restrictions,'' said Khrunichev's deputy director,
Yuri Gorodnichev. ``It is a huge step forward.''

	Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Export Administration stressed that
the United States could not act unilaterally to remove the controls and
said any action on exporting Motorola satellites to Russia still had to
be approved by the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export
Controls, or COCOM.

	But executives from Motorola said recently they were confident of
winning U.S. government approval for the project.

	In Washington, a U.S. State Department official who works on
technology export issues confided on condition of anonymity that
Motorola has been given a license to begin ``preliminary technical
discussions'' with Moscow but needed further approval to carry out the
plans.

	COCOM was set up in 1949 to prevent high-technology products from
being sold to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

	Embracing all NATO countries except Spain as well as Japan and
Australia, COCOM made sense at the height of the postwar superpower
standoff. With the collapse of communism and the fall of the Soviet
empire, its draconian provisions now make little sense to Russian
industrialists eager to forge ties with Western market economies and
sensitive to trade restrictions they see as anachronistic and unfair.

	``Under COCOM goods which are mass-produced for civilian use in the
rest of the world cannot be brought into Russia,'' said Vyacheslav
Dorofeyev of the Russia's Aerospace Conversion Center.

	Dorofeyev cited as an example Japanese high-precision machine tools
and semiconductors that are freely available in the West but cannot be
exported to Russia under COCOM rules.

	``Russia has had to reinvent the bicycle,'' he said. ``It is a waste
of our time and a waste of our scientific potential.''

	What is more, COCOM is beginning to play havoc with Russia's
conversion program, the plan first announced by former Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988 to switch the country's military enterprises
to civilian production.

	Officials at the Russian Space Agency said 80 conversion projects had
now been prepared and the Russian space complex would be increasing its
commercial services by as much as tenfold over the next few years.

	Key initiators of conversion are defense enterprises, which
used to build ballistic missiles banned under U.S.-Russian nuclear
arms reduction treaties and now are seeking non-military uses for
their rockets. 

	The most lucrative application for the missiles probably is as launch
rockets for commercial satellites. Russian Space Agency Director Yuri
Koptev said Russia plans a dozen commercial launches over the next four
years in deals worth $1 billion.

	But COCOM could throw up hurdles to the plan, preventing the export
of satellites to Russian cosmodromes.

	``We are capable of launching any commercial satellites and these
restrictions are very hard on us,'' said Gennady Yanpolsky of Russia's
Committee on the Defense Industry. ``They do nothing to help our future
plans for conversion.''

	One organization involved in adapting missiles to commercial use is
the Moscow-based trading firm I.V.K. It is financing a project called
Start-1 aimed at converting Russia's SS-25 intercontinental ballistic
missiles into transportable ground launch vehicles for small satellites.

	Capable of taking a 1,212-pound payload into an orbit 435 miles above
Earth, the Start-1 launcher could become a formidable new presence in a
market dominated by the European Space Agency Ariane-4 and U.S. rockets.

	``We have hundreds of potential customers,'' said I.V.K. deputy
director Sergei Zinchenko.

	It is easy to see why: I.V.K. will be considerably cheaper than any
of its competitors.

	One of these is the U.S. system Pegasus, which is dropped at high
altitude from the wing of a B-52 bomber and has a maximum payload
capacity of 1,000 pounds. A commercial flight costs $13 million. The
launch of a similar payload from the Start-1 launcher costs a mere $6.6
million.

	COCOM remains a significant stumbling block to I.V.K.

	``The COCOM restrictions mean Russia cannot launch foreign satellites
from its launchers because 80 percent of satellites are U.S.-produced
and their export to Russia is banned,'' Zinchenko said.

	I.V.K., however, has come up with a novel way of licking the export
controls. The Start-1 rocket is mobile and can be transported to launch
sites on land or sea anywhere in the world. If the satellite cannot be
brought to the launch pad, I.V.K. will bring the launch pad to the satellite.

	Russia's conversion agencies have a whole stack of plans for new non-
military satellites, with applications ranging from ecological
monitoring and predicting harvests to electronic mail and navigation.

	But COCOM still looms large over Russia's prospects for expanding its
space services despite growing calls to rescind the controls.

	An international conference on aerospace conversion, held in Moscow
in October and attended by 467 people from 26 countries, adopted a
declaration that questioned the need to perpetuate COCOM.

	The declaration said COCOM ``should be restructured in favor of an
international process to promote high-technology trade while ensuring
the control of dangerous weapons of mass destruction and dual-use
technologies through internationally agreed regulation.''

	In recent months, COCOM members, including the United States, have
recognized a need to loosen controls, especially in communications
technology.

	Only if controls are loosened and trade becomes freer will Russia
regain its economic stability and take its rightful place in the world,
said Dorofeyev of Russia's Aerospace Conversion Center.

	``We are talking about collaboration, not charity,'' he said. 
``Russia can only join the international community as an independent
partner if it maintains its space complex. Our aerospace is important
not just for Russia but for the whole world.''

Article: 3202
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
From: "Andrew Yee, Science North" <[email protected]>
Subject: Space activities of Russia and member states of CIS
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Science North
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 00:36:37 GMT
 
[From the September 1992 issue (No. 10) of "ECSL News", the bulletin of 
the European Centre for Space Law.  The bulletin is published under the 
auspices of the European Space Agency.]
 
SPACE ACTIVITIES OF RUSSIA AND MEMBER STATES OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF 
INDEPENDENT STATES
 
By E. Kamenetskaya, Academician, Institute of State and Law, Moscow
 
The global character of space activities and the universal interest of the 
international community regarding their consequences, prompted the rapid 
development of international law on the exploration and use of outer 
space.  At the same time, several States thought it necessary to address 
at national level issues connected with the implementation of their 
international obligations and the regulation of private sector space 
activities.  This resulted in the appearance of a limited, though growing, 
amount of specific domestic legislation governing space activities in the 
US, Britain, Sweden and some other countries.
 
In the Soviet Union, despite a huge space programme, that country had no 
specific legislation on space activities -- or at least no provisions of an 
open character.  Space activities were "regulated" by a number of secret 
rules and decisions adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist 
Party, the Government and various ministries and agencies.  These 
"regulations" were and are inaccessible to the public in the country and 
abroad.
 
For years Soviet lawyers felt this situation unfortunate and advocated the 
passage of a unified space act.  Their efforts were consistently rewarded 
with a negative reaction on the part of those who governed the country 
and had legislative authority, at least until the closing months of the 
Gorbachev era.
 
What is the situation now -- after the break-up of the USSR, the 
appearance of a number of sovereign States and the creation of the 
Commonwealth of Independent States?  There are two main aspects -- 
firstly, the legal regulation of cooperation among former Soviet Republics 
in the exploration and use of outer space and, secondly, the legal and 
organisational foundations of space activities in Russia.
 
First move of the CIS era
 
Taking into account the economic, scientific and technical legacy of the 
Soviet space programme there are important incentives to carry out space 
activities jointly among Member States of the Commonwealth of 
Independent States (CIS) on the basis of treaties of an international 
character between those Members that are interested.  A first such 
treaty -- the Agreement on Combined (Joint) Activities in the Exploration 
and Use of Outer Space -- was concluded at the highest level among nine 
CIS Members on 30 December 1991 in Minsk (the Ukraine and Moldova 
did not sign this Agreement), practically simultaneously with the CIS' 
creation.
 
The Agreement is in part a general statement.  It notes the necessity to 
develop space activities, the significance of space science and technology 
for the development of the Commonwealth Member States and the need 
for combined efforts.  The interests to be served are the economy, 
science, defence and the collective security of CIS Member States.
 
But the Agreement also sets out how the combined efforts should be 
undertaken.  Joint activities are to be effected on the basis of interstate 
programmes of space research and exploration, the implementation of 
which is to be coordinated by a special organ -- the Interstate Space 
Council.  Interstate programmes for military or dual-use purposes (i.e. 
military and civilian applications) will rely on the Joint Strategic Armed 
Forces for their fulfilment.
 
The Joint Agreement (but in July 1992 Ukraine joined the Minsk 
Agreement) also provides principles on the continuing utilisation of space 
facilities, proportionate financing and associated functional questions.  
Much, however, was left to subsequent agreements.
 
>From Minsk to Tashkent
 
Later, on 15 May 1992, a new Agreement was signed in Tashkent by all 
CIS Member States except Moldova.  This treaty develops some 
provisions of the Minsk Agreement, particularly on rights over ground 
infrastructure for space programmes.  One of its main provisions, Art. 1, 
stipulates that ground segment elements (e.g. the Baikonur and Plesetsk 
cosmodromes, the Cosmonauts Training Centre, technical, launch and 
landing complexes, subjacent rocket break-up zones, flight control 
centres) which are situated on the territories of Azerbaijan, Belarus, 
Kazakhstan and the Ukraine are to be considered the property of these 
States.
 
The right to use these elements is transferred to Strategic Forces of CIS or 
other parties concerned on the basis of special agreements.  On May 25, 
1992 two Member States of CIS -- Russia and Kazakhstan -- signed a 
bilateral Agreement on the problems connected with the utilisation of 
Baikonur Cosmodrome which is situated in Kazakhstan and is the property 
of this state.  The Agreement not only governs access and use conditions 
to Baikonur, but also provides a basis for coordination of space 
programmes.  The rest is devoted to financial procedures, and ecological 
and social matters.
 
Though the combination of the Minsk, Tashkent and Baikonur agreements 
have now regulated some of the most pressing problems connected with 
the transition from the Soviet programme to the new order, we still have 
before us the challenge of establishing a full-scale cooperative programme 
within CIS.
 
A new Russia in space
 
Against the overall post-Soviet situation, it is Russia of course which has 
the task of taking over the bulk of the Soviet space programme.  And it has 
acted quickly and differently from its Soviet predecessors.
 
On 27 February 1992 President Yeltsin issued a Decree on the creation of 
the Russian Space Agency.  In April, the Russian Government set down 
the powers of its organ.  By these actions, the Russian Space Agency has 
been charged with the elaboration and realisation of Russian space policy, 
specifically:
 
*  the elaboration, in collaboration with other bodies, of a draft space 
programme;
 
*  the promotion of commercial space activities;
 
*  the development of cooperation with CIS Member States and other 
countries in the exploration and use of outer space.
 
Beyond this important organisational step, President Yeltsin approved also 
in February a number of other measures aimed at developing Russian 
space activities, both in administrative and legislative terms.  The most 
significant move was the decision to move ahead with the drafting of a 
Space Act for the Russian Federation.  The task of producing a draft was 
given to the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute of State and Law), 
assisted by a number of other bodies.
 
This work is now being completed.  The next step is submission to Parliament.  
The draft:
 
*  determines the goals and guiding principles for the conducting of space 
activities;
 
*  defines the competence of the President, Government, Parliament, 
Russian Space Agency and other Russian organs active in this field;
 
*  determines the status of the space programme of the country and the 
principles for financing space activities.
 
The draft law also regulates some other questions deriving from 
obligations under international space law, such as the legal status of 
space objects and astronauts, and the allocation of liability and 
responsibility for the exploration and use of outer space.
 
Those working on the project are optimistic that the law will be adopted.  
Being framework legislation, it would then lay the ground for further and 
more specific norms.  One may also expect the Ukraine and other CIS 
Republics to wish for a similar evolution.  Greater clarity can only help in 
consolidating this new phase in space activities.


Article: 3203
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
From: "Andrew Yee, Science North" <[email protected]>
Subject: Space activities of Central European countries
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Science North
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1993 00:38:04 GMT
 
[From the September 1992 issue (No. 10) of "ECSL News", the bulletin of 
the European Centre for Space Law.  The bulletin is published under the 
auspices of the European Space Agency.]
 
CENTRAL EUROPE THEN AND NOW
 
By V. Kopal
 
The fundamental transformation in the lives of Central European countries 
is reflected in their space activities.  From 1967 these had relied on Soviet 
rockets, satellites and tracking systems that were later made available 
under the Intercosmos cooperation (started by the Agreement on 
Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful 
Purposes, Moscow, 13 July 1976).
 
Intercosmos lacked the common funding and other characteristics of a full-
scale international organisation, but rather coordinated national space 
research bodies set up by each member government.  Czechoslovakia's 
took the shape of a Commission, chaired by the President of the 
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and composed of interested 
ministries and agencies.  The Chairman represented the country in the 
Intercosmos meeting of Chairmen of national organs.  Joint expert groups 
oversaw by discipline the various projects.
 
Intercosmos' programme was originally oriented to basic research effected 
in scientific institutes (this explains the national bodies being linked to 
their academies of sciences).  But this changed over the years and user-
oriented, applied research started to play a significant role.  The 
programme came to cover space physics, meteorology, biology and 
medicine, communications and the environment.  Its expansion led to a 
multidisciplinary network among institutes, universities, ministry research 
institutions and industrial laboratories.  Still there, it now enables 
cooperation with any partners, inside or outside the Intercosmos framework.
 
Taking again the example of Czechoslovakia, it participated, mainly via 
Intercosmos up to 1991, in over 140 experiments in space physics, space 
biology and medicine, and remote sensing.  They were accomplished on 
57 space objects; 3 were built in Czechoslovakia (subsatellites of the 
"Magion" series).  In constructing most of the space instruments, their 
makers cooperated with partners from both East and West Europe.
 
While Intercosmos' existence is now in question, individual projects 
already started continue, despite funding and other difficulties.  At the 
same time, existing scientific and technical teams are forming closer tie to 
other space programmes, especially in Europe.  An example was the 
signing in 1990 of a Czechoslovak-CNES agreement on Earth observation 
and other space research cooperation.  The usefulness of SPOT data in 
different areas of the Czechoslovak economy is now under investigation.  
Also, on 11 February 1992 Eumetsat and the Czech and Slovak 
Hydrometeorological Services concluded a 4-year agreement on the use 
free of charge of Meteosat image and other data.  The Czechoslovak 
Commission now intends to be active in the Hexagonal initiative's space 
section.  These, and joint experiments with West Europeans, will certainly 
proceed irrespective of the possibility of the dissolution of the Federation.
 
As to further steps, all Central European countries consider the 
development of cooperation with ESA to be particularly important.  
Hungary concluded a Cooperation Agreement with ESA in 1990, and 
similar agreements have been negotiated with Poland and Romania, 
though not yet signed; Czechoslovakia was engaged in similar negotiation 
in June 1992.  The draft agreements foresee cooperation in space 
science, Earth observation research and applications, 
telecommunications, microgravity research and material processing.  
Other provisions deal with working-level consultations on joint projects, 
awards of fellowships, exchanges of experts, and joint symposia.  The 
possibility of closer association with ESA is under study in these countries.
 
Internally, the new situation requires organisms comparable to space 
agencies in other countries.  Hungary decided to establish a space 
research agency earlier this year, and Poland reportedly is also close to 
such a step.  Subject to broader political developments, the Czech and 
Slovak space community believes the present Commission should give 
way to an agency as the conceptual, coordinating and advisory body of 
the government and its representative in international relations.

Article: 59500
From: [email protected] (Brian Yamauchi)
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space
Subject: Looting in Baikonur & Ukrainian Space Program
Date: 23 Mar 93 14:44:47 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University
 
In the current issue of Time, there is a one-paragraph story that
mentions: 
 
"At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan... civilian workers have
been looting equipment, crippling the facility's launch pad in the
process.  The Russian space program is also involved in a feud with
the new Ukrainian state, which has its own space program.  A Russian
meteorological satellite was turned off in orbit, so Ukraine couldn't
recover weather data from it.  Some of the stolen Baikonur equipment
has mysteriously resurfaced in Ukraine..."
 
Does anyone have more details, either about the looting at Baikonur,
the seriousness of the "crippling" of the "launch pad", or about the
extent of the Ukrainian space program?
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
 
Brian Yamauchi			Case Western Reserve University
[email protected]	Department of Computer Engineering and Science
_______________________________________________________________________________

Article: 59503
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space
From: [email protected] (Frank Crary)
Subject: Re: Looting in Baikonur & Ukrainian Space Program
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 15:54:43 GMT
 
In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] (Brian Yamauchi) writes: 

>Does anyone have more details, either about the looting at Baikonur,
>the seriousness of the "crippling" of the "launch pad", or about the
>extent of the Ukrainian space program?
 
The Ukrainian program can't be too extensive: The only launch complex
they have access to is Kapustin Yar. While it is quite equitorial 
for a ex-Soviet site, it is currently only capable of launching
sounding rockets and very small orbital launchers like the SL-8
(1.25 tonnes to Low Earth Orbit.)
 
                                                Frank Crary
                                                CU Boulder
 

Article: 60629
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Cosmos 2238: an EORSAT
Date: 6 Apr 93 11:34:50 PST
Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego
 
>Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1993 15:40:47 GMT
 
>I need as much information about Cosmos 2238 and its rocket fragment (1993-
>018B) as possible. Both its purpose, launch date, location, in short,
>EVERYTHING! Can you help?
 
>-Tony Ryan, "Astronomy & Space", new International magazine, available from:
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Ocean Reconnaissance Launch Surprises West
Space News, April 5-11, 1993, p.2
[Excerpts]

     Russia launched its first ocean reconnaissance satellite in 26 months 
March 30, confounding Western analysts who had proclaimed the program dead. 

     The Itar-TASS news agency announced the launch of Cosmos 2238 from 
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, but provided little description of the payload's mission. 

     However, based on the satellite's trajectory, Western observers 
identified it as a military spacecraft designed to monitor electronic 
emissions from foreign naval ships in order to track their movement. 

     Geoff Perry of the Kettering Group in England... [said]  Western 
observers had concluded that no more would be launched. But days after the 
last [such] satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, Cosmos 2238 was 
launched. 
 
"Cosmos-2238" Satellite Launched for Defense Ministry
Moscow ITAR-TASS World Service in Russian  1238 GMT 30 March 1993
Translated in FBIS-SOV-93-060, p.27
by ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Romanenkova

     Moscow, 30 March -- The Cosmos-2238 satellite was launched at 1600 Moscow 
time today from the Baykonur by a "Tsiklon-M" carrier rocket. An ITAR-TASS 
correspondent was told at the press center of Russia's space-military forces 
that the satellite was launched in the interests of the Russian Defense 
Ministry. 
 
Parameters Given
Moscow ITAR-TASS World Service in Russian 0930 GMT 31 March 1993
Translated in FBIS-SOV-93-060, p.27

     Moscow, 31 March -- Another artificial Earth satellite, Cosmos-2238, was 
launched on 30 March from the Baykonur cosmodrome. 

     The satellite carries scientific apparatus for continuing space research. 
The satellite has been placed in an orbit with the following parameters: 
initial period of revolution--92.8 minutes; apogee--443 km; perigee--413 km; 
orbital inclination--65 degrees. 

     Besides scientific apparatus the satellite carries a radio system for the 
precise measurement of orbital elements and a radiotelemetry system for 
transmitting to Earth data about the work of the instruments and scientific 
apparatus. The apparatus aboard the satellite is working normally. 
 

Article: 60696
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: More on converted SS-25
Date: 7 Apr 93 07:03:08 PST
Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego
 
Here's a bit more on the recent launch of a satellite by a converted 
SS-25 road-mobile ICBM.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
TV Reports on Launch of Converted SS-25
Moscow Russian Television in Russian 1700 GMT 25 Mar 93
[Report by A. Shiryayev and S. Teplov; from the "Vesti" newscast]
Reported in FBIS-SOV-93-058 29 March 1993 [p. 86]

    An experimental Start rocket carrying a spacecraft was launched from 
Plesetsk today. The Start rocket is a conversion rocket. It is based on 
the Topol missile system's ballistic missile in service with the armed 
forces. 

     [Shiryayev] This will be the first experiment to dispose of an SS-
25 strategic missile naturally, so to speak. In order to avoid having to 
blow it up--which is disadvantageous from an economic, environmental, 
and even commercial viewpoint--the strategic launch vehicle has been 
converted, and this hangar was built specifically for the launch. 

     Tribute must be paid to the authors of this project, which will not 
only help to save many material resources but will also provide an 
opportunity to earn good money on launches like this one. Many companies 
in various countries of the world have expressed interest in placing 
advertisements aboard the carrier. There are also proposals to use the 
Start-1 launcher to place artificial earth satellites in orbit. 
 
Experimental 'Start' Rocket Launched
Moscow ITAR-TASS World Service in Russian 1537 GMT 25 Mar 93
[By ITAR-TASS correspondent Veronika Romanenkova]
Reported in FBIS-SOV-93-057 26 March 1993 [p. 61] 

      Moscow, 25 March--Today, at 1615 hours, the launch of the "Start" 
experimental rocket carrying a space apparatus was carried out. The 
ITAR-TASS correspondent was told this at the press center of the 
Military-Space Forces. 

     The mass of the space apparatus is 260 kg. The operating height of 
the orbit is 700 km. 

     The "Start" rocket is a converted rocket. It has been created on 
the basis of the "RS-12M" ballistic missile that is in service (known in 
the West as SS-25). The new space complex has been created from extra-
budget funds (taking part in financing the complex were the "IVK" joint-
stock company, the "Kompleks" Scientific and Technical Center [NTTs], 
and the "Bauman" State Technical College in Moscow. Thanks to this, the 
producer of rockets of this class--the Votkinsk machine-building works 
in Udmurtia--was given the opportunity to apply its state-of-the-art 
output for peaceful purposes, too. Wide opportunities are opening up 
here inasmuch as the "Start" can put into orbit space apparatuses with a 
mass of up to one tonne, which it is inexpedient to do by means of other 
carrier-rockets being operated today. 

     The space apparatus will be controlled by the Flight Control Center 
of apparatuses for scientific and national economy purposes, which is 
part of the Military-Space Forces. 
 
Orbit Parameters Given
Moscow ITAR-TASS World Service in Russian 0925 GMT 26 Mar 93
Reported in FBIS-SOV-93-057 26 March 1993 [pp. 61-62] 

     Moscow, 26 Mar (ITAR-TASS)--Today the Flight Control Center 
reported that on 25 March 1993 the first ever launch of a "Start-1" 
experimental satellite was carried out with the help of a "Start- 1" 
rocket carrier from Plesetsk cosmodrome. 

     The "Start-1" rocket carrier was designed within the conversion 
framework on the basis of the RS-12M intercontinental ballistic missile, 
which is known abroad as the SS-25 missile. The modernization of this 
missile fully meets the conditions of the START II Russian-U.S. Treaty 
on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons. 

     The "Start-1" satellite, which is a dummy of correct size and 
weight for flying-design trials of the carrier rocket, has been placed 
in orbit with the following parameters: 

--initial period of revolution--101 minutes;
--apogee--966 km;
--perigee--695 km;
--orbital inclination--75.8 degrees
 

Date: Thu, 20 May 93 00:13:39 +0400
From: "Ivan M. Moiseyev" <[email protected]>
Subject: Russia's space policy
Newsgroups: sci.space

     April 27, 1993 Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation
accept significant documents in field of Space Policy:

     1. Statement of the Supreme Soviet on the Priorities of the
Space Policy of the Russian Federation

     2. Resolution of the Supreme Soviet on Measures to Stabilize
the Situation in the Space Science and Industry

     This documents is analog of US President's Directives.

     The fact of adoption this documents means creating of new
Russia' Space Policy.

 STATEMENT OF THE SUPREME SOVIET ON THE  PRIORITIES OF THE SPACE
                POLICY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
                            (briefly)

     1. In the Russian Federation, space activities shall be
conducted for the purposes of ensuring the well-being of the
people, developing the Russian Federation, strengthening its
security, as well as solving the global problems of humankind.
     In the context of the Russian space exploration effort it
must be ensured that
     - enterprises, organizations and citizens of the Russian
Federation have an equal right to participate in space activities
and use their results;
     - information about space activities be accessible to the public;
     - monopolism be restricted and private enterprise encouraged;
     - space projects and programmes be subjected to independent
examination;
     - space activities be safe, and environmental-friendly.
     2. Russia's Federal Space Programme shall be shaped in
conformity with the requirements and economic potential of
society and the state.
     Commercial space projects shall be aimed at achieving
maximum socio-economic effect, concentrating on the development
of information, communications, television and ecological
monitoring networks and on mineral wealth exploration.
     In the area of space research the priority should be given
to exploratory work that makes it possible to pose and achieve
fundamentally new objectives, as well as to applied development
projects commissioned by concrete customers.
     Military space exploration ought to be focussed largely on
using spacecraft for operational control, communications,
reconnaissance and other types OF SUPPORT to the armed forces.
     The Statement says about the need to effect structural
changes, including conversion of profitable aerospace enterprises
to joint-stock companies or their privatisation, which, however,
must accord with the specifics of the space industry and space
science. As this takes place, the unique test rigs and essential
space infrastructure will remain in state ownership and become
accessible to interested companies and organizations.
     The Statement points out that to preserve the intellectual
property of companies, organizations and individuals that have
participated in the development of spacecraft and space
technologies is of paramount importance. Drawing on the world
practice, it is necessary to work out a system of crediting,
taxation and government guarantees for companies and
organizations engaged in space projects.
     It emphasizes the importance of attracting foreign
investments backed by the government's appropriate guarantees and
those offered by interested Russian companies and organizations.
The Statement proceeds from the assumption that the state policy
should be aimed at supporting the efforts of domestic companies
and organizations in the world aerospace market, at promoting
international cooperation and integration in the area of space
exploration on the basis of mutual advantage, and at meeting
Russia's commitments under international agreements.

  RESOLUTION OF THE SUPREME SOVIET ON MEASURES TO STABILIZE THE
           SITUATION IN THE SPACE SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
                            (briefly)

     Resolution of the Supreme Soviet, instructs the Government
of the Russian Federation to:

     - authorize the RSA to commission on behalf of the
government the manufacture of space systems, complexes, and
technology employed in R&D and for commercial purposes, and also,
jointly with the Russian Ministry of Defence, the manufacture of
space systems, complexes and technology used both for civilian
and military purposes;

     - draw up a procedure for facilitating the implementation of
space projects financed by companies, organizations and
individual citizens, including by way of giving them government
guarantees, favorable credits, tax exemptions, etc.;
     - work out a programme of structural changes in space
science and space industry, including the creation of federal
space centers on the basis of the leading design bureaus and
research institutes, as well as holding and joint-stock companies
entitled to purpose-oriented financing, including from conversion funds;
     - draw up a plan for the further utilization of the space
infrastructure, primarily the Plesetsk spaceport, with account
taken of socio-economic development aspects of the relevant regions;
     - take the necessary steps to preserve the existing
scientific and production ties in the space sector of the
Commonwealth of Independent States, including holding
consultations with the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to specify
the status and prospects for a further joint use of the Baikonur
spaceport;
     - draw up and implement a single scientific and economic
policy related to international agreements on space exploration
and utilization, including commercial space projects.
     The Resolution provides for the creation of a Russian Space
Fund conceived as an independent entity that is to attract funds
both from internal and external sources in order to encourage
scientific research, to form insurance stocks, to introduce
aerospace production methods to other industries, and to support
campaigns in favour of using space technology as a means of
raising the educational and cultural standards of the public.

     It is also planned to set up an ad hoc group of deputies
composed of members of interested standing commissions and
committees under the chambers of the Supreme Soviet, which will
help to exercise parliamentary control over space activities.

Article: 63736
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: FSU military space systems
Date: 27 May 93 06:28:53 PST
Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego
 
Here is an interesting item on FSU military space systems. For those 
who might wish to follow up, my local files show the address of TsNPO 
Kometa as Velozavodskaya ulitsa 5, Moscow, Federation of Russia,
with fax numbers (7095) 274-7330 for Prof. d.t.n. Valeriy G. Bondur
and a general fax number of (7095) 274-0870. The second one seems to be 
on only during business hours in Moscow.
 
Allen Thomson                SAIC, Inc.                  McLean, VA
<standard disclaimer>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign Broadcast Information Service Central Eurasia Daily Report
FBIS-SOV-93-093 17 May 1993

'Red Space' Program on Space Defense Systems (LD1505133093)
 
[Editorial Report] Moscow Ostankino Television First Channel Network in 
Russian at 0750 GMT on 15 May broadcasts its 30-minute "Red Space" 
program entitled "Secret Space--Part 1," which is about space defense 
systems. 
 
The program begins in the Kometa Central Science Production Association, 
a space research center. A variety of unidentified equipment is shown. 
 
Academician Anatoliy Savin, the general designer and general director of 
the center, is interviewed and explains that for the past 30 years he 
has been working in the sphere of rocket guided weapons and space 
surveillance systems. These have now become most important from the 
point of view of supporting the strategic balance and thus preventing 
nuclear war, he said. 
 
The program flashes back briefly over the growth of the nuclear threat 
in recent decades. The scientists who are interviewed during the program 
are then flashed up in succession, together with captions. Some 
scientists are shown at work, more apparatus is shown. 
 
The program recaps the accumulation of weapons in the Cold War years, 
showing archive pictures. It says that in spite of the recent changes in 
strategy, the quantity and power of existing weapons is still great, and 
the nuclear danger remains. So surveillance and monitoring of all these 
matters is still very much on the agenda. Unique global surveillance 
systems have been developed in Russia to envisage all situations and 
enemy actions and warn of a nuclear strike. 
 
The narrator says that five global systems form the basis of resources 
for supporting the strategic balance: The first is a global system of 
constant surveillance over missile dangerous areas of the Earth's 
surface. The video shows explanatory diagrams, and pictures of equipment 
for receiving satellite data. Chief designer Konstantin Vlasko-Vlasov 
explains the system in general terms, while the video shows aerial 
pictures and pictures of satellite equipment. 
 
The second system, the narrator continues, is a system for detecting 
falling warheads, guiding anti-ballistic missiles toward them and 
destroying them. An example is the American Patriot system, or Russia's 
S300 missiles. The video shows these systems in action. 
 
The narrator then describes various aspects of a single global 
surveillance system, designed to monitor surface, naval, and air sites. 
A system for monitoring the sea from space allows the world's oceans to 
be surveyed in all conditions, the narrator says. This is carried out by 
a remote control satellite apparatus. A second system monitors dangerous 
underwater areas. Chief designer of this system Sergey Mishukov explains 
the principle of this system, adding that it has great possibilities for 
peaceful application as well. The video shows aerial pictures and shots 
of equipment and personnel receiving satellite data, as well as various 
archive pictures of naval facilities. 
 
The narrator says that new methods for detecting anomalous underwater 
phenomena have important applications in oceanography and ecology as 
well. Professor Valeriy Bondur, a chief designer in the Kometa 
Association, shows the new equipment in action, and the video shows 
scientists studying computer data gathered by the new system. The 
narrator also adds that economic difficulties have prevented the 
underwater surveillance system from being properly implemented so far. 
 
A system for monitoring strategic aviation aircraft, the narrator says, 
is also being held back by economic difficulties. He explains briefly 
the use of detailed land surveillance systems, including photographic, 
optical, and electronic, and radio technical satellites. The video shows 
a variety of receiving equipment. 
 
A system for influencing space installations has been developed and is 
functioning, the narrator continues. Its purpose is to detect and strike 
[porazheniye] military installations in space. The video shows diagrams 
of how the system works. It is the first of its kind. 
 
The fifth and final system, the narrator says, is intended for action in 
conditions of war. It should monitor the consequences of the direct use 
of weapons of mass destruction. Its technical resources also allow the 
detection of radioactivity levels and effects of chemical and 
bacteriological weapons. In peacetime the system can be used to solve 
ecological problems and monitor emergencies. The video shows aerial 
pictures of craters and scientists analyzing radiation levels and 
working from computer data. 
 
Over archive military pictures and more pictures of scientists, the 
narrator poses the question of whether all this equipment is still 
needed in the new world situation. Chief system designer Leonid Legezov 
says the effective use of space systems during the war in Iraq indicated 
that it is. He says the role of space research would have to change. In 
particular there are interesting ideas connected with removal of 
dangerous debris from space. The narrator adds that ecological projects 
are already being developed under the Sirius Program. He goes on to 
outline a number of other conversion applications, and chief designer of 
the sea monitoring system Gleb Zotov explains other economic 
applications of this system. The program ends with reflections on 
Russia's changing role in the world, over assorted archive military 
pictures and news clips. 
 
The process of rapprochement with the West is irreversible, the narrator 
says, however, opposition to this remains on both sides, obstructing 
genuine legal parity. Ukraine refuses to ratify START I and give up its 
nuclear weapons. The present Russian Parliament will not ratify START 
II. However, moves toward consensus and peace continue, the program 
concludes. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 22:30:07 EET
From: [email protected] (F.Baube[tm])
Subject: Jumbo Kansas/Russian Cosmosphere

Did this make the US news?

From The Guardian (UK), 10 June, 1993
 Science Diary, by Celia Locks

It's the Russian version of a car boot sale, except that the wares are
from the Soviet space programme. The Kansas Cosmosphere in the US has
snapped up, for about $1 million, a job lot including a real (though
unused) version of the Sputnik satellite, authorised models of the Mir
space station and Soyuz (which shuttles cosmonauts between Mir and the
Earth), Vostok (the Soviets' first manned spacecraft), and a collection 
of Soviet spacesuits and space foods, including tubes of caviar. 

Chuck Zimkas, director of operations for the US Space Foundation in
Colorado Springs, said the sale was a bit puzzling.  "You wonder if
they are having a garage sale over there.  There are so many Russians
around working so many deals that sometimes you have to wonder who is
running the railroad." 

Glenn Reynolds, professor of space law at the University of Tennessee,
said:  "We wouldn't lightly sell the Spirit of St Louis now hanging
in the Smithsonian or our Moon rocks.  This collection is like the
crown jewels." 

-- 
* Fred Baube (tm)   * "It is with narrow-souled people 
* GU/MSFS/88        *  as with narrow-necked bottles: 
* [email protected] *  the less they have in them, 
* #include          *  the more noise they make in 
*    <disclaimer.h> *  pouring out." -- Alexander Pope

Article: 67019
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Baykonur costs and stats
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 15:59:23 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
More numbers for Baykonur costs, etc.. I don't claim any of these
numbers are right, this is just whats reported in the Russian press
and what I happened to be reading recently: 
 
Over 1.5B Roubles is the reported cost of maintainance for Leninisk
(90,000 population) this year. 15% of profits from commercial space
launches is to go to the cosmodrome and city but the city claims no
funds have materialized yet from launches. 
 
The cost of the Baykonur cosmodrome operations is 500 M Roubles (1990
Roubles). Some statistics sited for the cosmodrome were: 15 space
launch pads, 4 ICBM launch pads, an oxygen-nitrogen production plant,
60 MW heat/electric plant, 470 km rail lines, 1281 km roads, 6610 km
power lines, 2784 km communications lines, 1240 km water pipelines,
430 km sewer lines, uses 600 KW/hours electricity per year and 160,000
cubic meter water a day, 9944 officers, 18316 enlisted, 3460
employees, and 18000 dependants. Total area is 6717 Sq km. Land taken
for booster fallout is 104305 sq km including sections in Kazakstan,
Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 80% of the Leninsk city council
are Russian officers but none can become chairman since they are not
Kazakstan citizens although 5 have become candidates anyway. 
 
Source : V. Li, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, Dec 26, 1992, p 4
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 67050
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian space work force
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1993 23:51:48 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
Russian Space Agency director Koptev says more than one million workers
was the peak employment level of the space industry sector and says
reduction to 200,000 is needed to fit expected needs.... 
 
Source : A. Vasilyev and M Krans, Rossiya, April 21-27, 1993, p.11
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 67812
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian conversion gone too far...
Organization: Motorola
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1993 14:28:00 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
Well from this report it can't be said the Russians aren't trying to
change...
 
"Russian space head accused"

"The head of the Russian Military Space Forces has been accused of
selling channels on Geizer and Altair military-communications
satellites to commercial operators. He is also said to have used the
satellites to conduct private transactions. The corruption allegations
against Col Gen Vladimir Ivanov were made by the Russian newspaper
Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 30 June. The newspaper alleges that he sold a
"...channel of the military space communications system to a foreign
client, who obtained the protocols of communications, frequencies and
means of deciphering codes and manipulating landbased computing
systems". The US Central Intelligence Agency, the paper reports,
regularly intercepted communications from military satellites. The
newspaper paints a picture of Ivanov as a "petty shop-keeper" carrying
out commercial trading of items on the military-communications
satellites, including ordering "lavatory pans". Against the orders of
defence minister Pavel Grachev, Ivanov is also cashing in on the
commercial potential of military spacecraft. With funds from Russian
businesses and US companies, Ivanov established the Cosma space
promotions company, flying a Vostok-based photo-reconnaisance
satellite, the Resurs 500, which landed off the coast of California in
November 1992." 

[Flight International, 7-13 July, 1993, pp. 4]
 
Vladimir Leontyevich Ivanov has been in the Armed Forces since 1954.
He graduated from the Caspian Higher Naval School imeni S.M. Kirov,
the Rostov Higher Command and Engineering School imeni Chief Marshal
of Artillery M. I. Nedelin, and the Military Academy imeni F. E.
Dzerzhinskiy. He has been a crew chief, a section chief, and a group
chief, as well as missile regiment commander, a division commander,
deputy commander of a missle army, and commander of the Plesetsk
Cosmodrome. From the position of executive officer of Space Units of
the USSR Ministry of Defense, he was appointed in 1989 as chief of
those units. [KOMMUNIST VOORUZHENNYKH SIL, No 7, Apr 91 pp 48-52, by
Col A. Radionov, "Space Exploration Stars and Thorns", FBIS
USP-91-007, 11/22/91] 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

                                           

From:	US1RMC::"HASTRO-L%[email protected]" "History of Astronomy 
        Discussion Group"  9-AUG-1993 09:25:44.90
To:	Multiple recipients of list HASTRO-L
        <HASTRO-L%[email protected]> 
CC:	
Subj:	Soviet Space Memorabilia

FROM:    WEBB DENNIS W        OFFICE ASNI-ASE PHONE 703-325-6582
SUBJECT: Soviet Space Memorabilia

There was a front-page article in yesterday's (Sunday) NY Times about
an upcoming auction at Sotheby's of Soviet space program memorabilia. 
To be auctioned off are such items as turn-of-the-century monographs
of Konstantin E. Tsiolokovsky, the slide rule of Sergei P. Korolyov,
lunar fragments, an elaborate never-used space suit, and more.  Some
of the humbler items have stories behind them, for instance:  "A badly
frayed space glove turns out, in the telling, to have been critical
for an astronaut who spent seven desperate hours in a space walk,
clawing at a damaged hatch that threatened doom.  An innocuous packet
of nuts and bolts from one of the earliest flights was nervously
collected by an astronaut startled to find pieces of his spaceship
coming loose, just like parts of a badly made Soviet automobile, and
floating about." 

One final anecdote:  "The tales sound as potentially priceless as the
various artifacts offered by Col Aleksei Leonov, the first human to
walk in space.  He returned to earth badly, landing far off course in
the Urals during a three-day blizzard.  He managed to build a fire
outside the capsule with some tree scraps, only to be chased back
inside his snowbound space ship by a Russian bear... Colonel Leonov
thereafter ordered a special combined flare-and-shotgun designed to
deal with bears." [James Oberg says it was a pack of wolves, not a
bear.  Even if it were a bear, I don't think the Soviets would have
wanted to admit that their national symbol tried to eat the world's
first space walker. - LK]

: Dennis Webb                 :                               :
: Hoffman-II, Alexandria VA   :    "Quot homines,             :
: (703) 325-6582              :       tot sententiae."        :
: [email protected] :                               :

% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Date:         Mon, 9 Aug 1993 09:00:01 EDT
% Sender: History of Astronomy Discussion Group 
          <HASTRO-L%[email protected]>
% From: WEBB DENNIS W <[email protected]>
% Subject:      Soviet Space Memorabilia
% X-To:         HASTRO-L%[email protected]

From:	US1RMC::"[email protected]" "Ron Baalke" 10-AUG-1993 
To:	[email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	Moon Rocks For Sale

                            MOON ROCKS FOR SALE
                              August 9, 1993

     Moon rocks will be auctioned off at Sotheby's auction house in
New York on December 11, 1993.  The moon rocks are part of a
collection of 200 artifacts from the Soviet space program that will be
available at the auction.  The moon rocks were obtained from a Luna
spacecraft in the 1970s that had scooped them up from the surface of
the Moon and returned them to Earth.  They are being sold by the
family of Sergei Korolev.  Korolev was the mastermind of the Soviet
space program and died in 1966.  The Moon rocks are expected to sell
for around $50,000. 

     This will be the second time that lunar material has been
available at an auction.  The first time was in January 1993 when Moon
dust was sold at an auction house in Berverly Hills, California.  The
Moon dust was collected by a NASA technician onto a 2 inch piece of
transparent tape from the spacesuit of astronaut Dave Scott after his
Apollo 15 trip to the Moon in July, 1971.  The Moon dust sold for $46,750. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | When given a choice between
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | two exciting things, choose
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | the one you haven't tried.

Article: 69045
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Auction of Soviet space goodies
Date: 9 Aug 93 16:07:22 -0600
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 
My morning mail had a message from Dennis W. Webb
<[email protected]> which he's given me permission to quote:
 
[Webb message removed.]
 
More details from the 8 August *Times* article:
 
Auction is 11 December.  Stuff will be on display at Sotheby's for a
week preceding the auction.  (We may hope that some Usenet
correspondent will report on this...) 
 
The spacesuit is one designed for a Moon landing.
 
Most of this stuff seems to come from the personal collections of
cosmonauts looking for cash.
 
Other items include:
 
--Space food samples
--Mir cutlery etched with designs by bored cosmonauts
--Khruschev's telegram congratulating Gagarin on his flight
--Gherman Titov's fork (first guy to eat in space)
--Ivan Ivanovich, first mannequin to fly aboard Vostok
 
I would *really* like to have Sergei Korolyov's slide rule.  Do you
suppose 100 bucks would take it?  (-:  I don't have much money...
Anybody care to bid on other items?
 
Bill Higgins, Beam Jockey              | If a comet falls on Jupiter
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  | and nobody hears it, 
Bitnet:           [email protected]  | does it make a noise?
Internet:       [email protected]  |
SPAN/Hepnet:           43011::HIGGINS  | --Dr. Barry D. Gehm

Article: 69088
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Re: Auction of Soviet space goodies
Organization: Motorola
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1993 15:18:59 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected]
(Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: 

>Other items include:
>
>--Space food samples
>--Mir cutlery etched with designs by bored cosmonauts
>--Khruschev's telegram congratulating Gagarin on his flight
>--Gherman Titov's fork (first guy to eat in space)
>--Ivan Ivanovich, first mannequin to fly aboard Vostok
 
Some of the items were displayed on CNN yesterday, they also include
an Almaz capsule. This is the Chelomey designed capsule similar to the
one he first proposed for his UR500K/LK circumlunar mission and later
developed as a crew transport (popularly known as the Star Module) for
the Almaz/Salyut military stations (Salyut 3 & 5). Kosmos 929, 1256,
1443 used this type of capsule and inert capsules flew on Kosmos 1686
and possibly 1669. It's similar in size to an Apollo capsule but also
has a hatch through the heat sheild. They also reportedly flew the
mysterious dual-Kosmos missions Kosmos 881/882, etc... 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 40957
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary,sci.geo.geology
Subject: Re: Moon Rocks For Sale
Date: 12 Aug 1993 15:13 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
I found out more about the Moon rocks that will be on the auction
block in December.  The rocks were advertised as "rock fragments", but
after talking to the auction house, they admitted it is more closer to
being Moon dust.  The Moon dust was collected from the "first Luna
mission", which I interpreted as meaning the first successful Luna
mission that returned lunar soil, which would make it Luna 16.  Luna
16 was launched on September 12, 1970 and soft landed on the Moon on
September 20.  A drill was used to collect 101 grams of lunar
material.  The lunar sample was returned to Earth on September 24. 
Three grams of the Luna 16 sample was exchanged in 1971 for 3 grams of
Apollo 11 and 3 grams of Apollo 12 lunar samples.  The Luna 16 lunar
material that will be auctioned off is a very small sample and my
impression was that there is less than a gram there. The Moon dust is
encased in a metal box with a clear plastic top, and as far as I can
determine has been sealed in this box for at least 20 years. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | When given a choice between
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | two exciting things, choose
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | the one you haven't tried.

Article: 69328
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Museum folks comment (was Re: Auction of Soviet space goodies)
Date: 13 Aug 93 22:06:22 -0600
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected]
(Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: 

> I would *really* like to have Sergei Korolyov's slide rule.  Do you
> suppose 100 bucks would take it?  (-:  I don't have much money...
> Anybody care to bid on other items?
 
Thinking about the Sotheby's auction of cosmonaut memorabilia, it
occurred to me that the museum professionals might have something to
say about it.  Sure enough, when I tuned into the MUSEUM-L list at
[email protected], there was a bit of traffic.  Most of the
authors have given me permission to repost their messages to
sci.space/Space Digest.  
 
I agree that if I can't have these artifacts in my living room, I'd
rather have them in a museum where I can go see 'em than in some
rich private collector's vault.  
 
     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [email protected]
   -   -       Internet:  [email protected]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS 
 
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 8 Aug 1993 08:42:08 -0500
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
From:         Judith A Turner <[email protected]>
Subject:      Sotheby's auction
 
Sunday, August 8, 1993's New York Times features a page 1 article on
a planned Sotheby's auction of hundreds of artifacts from the earliest
days of the Soviet space program.  "This is as close as you can get to
the begininning of man's entry into space" is the quote from David Redden,
Sotheby's director of the auction which will be held in New York City
with a weeklong exhibition preceding the December 11 sale.
 
According to the article, the auction house approached the individual
astronauts and the "still-operating" monopolies of the former Soviet
space program for the artifacts.  "Detailed accounts of the stories
behind the objects were critical."  Mr. Redden is quoted as saying
"Only when they described the personal memory of these items do you
get a true idea of what the human dimension of space travel was like."
 
I can understand, and would probably do the same thing as the Russian
cosmonauts are doing, if it meant I could feed and shelter my family
a bit better.  Conditions in the former Soviet Union are extremely
difficult, with the ruble exchange being just the latest example.
Additionally, these objects were created by a government which many
people in Russia and the other CIS nations have repudiated.  The article
calls the Soviet Space program "the only triumphal chapter of Bolshevism."
 
Problem is that these unique items will pass into private hands and be
dispersed around the globe.  Perhaps the museums of Russia and the other
former SSR's have plenty of material from the space program but they
probably do not have the individual accounts that document the artifacts.
 
Is there any possibility that the National Air and Space Museum can
get involved?  Another major museum with an interest.  The NY Times
piece is scary in that it seems that Sotheby's is more interested in
having lots of bidders for memorabilia, rather than a few serious
collectors, insitutional or private.
 
I don't suppose anybody has Ross Perot's email address.  I suspect that
Mr. Clinton's budget resolution does not contain enough money for the
US government to match the Sotheby's prices and so preserve this collection
and its associated documentation but perhaps  there is a very wealthy,
very interested individual out there who would see the need to keep this
together and on public display.  If the US hadn't had to compete with the
Russians to get into space and on the moon, where would our space program
be.  It seems to me that it hasn't gone anywhere terribly fast of late --
could be due to lack of money but it could also be due to lack of competition.
 
Judy Turner
Milwaukee Public Museum
=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 8 Aug 1993 17:27:31 EDT
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Comments:     Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2
From:         Cathy Lewis <[email protected]>
Subject:      Sotheby's auction
In-Reply-To:  note of 08/08/93 09:43
 
Let's just say that the article this morning didn't make my coffee go down
very well. This is something that I have seen coming for the last few years,
as early as 1989. Unfrrtunately, there doen't seem to be much for me to do
about it. Artifacts from the Soviet space program have frequently ended in the
hands of the private individuals. The Soviet government had no arrangement for
the preservation of these artifacts similar to NASA's arrangement with the
Smithsonian. Thus when programmatic use ended for most of these objects they
either ended up in a closed museums, or in Vaska's garage at his dacha. Since
the beginning of the economic collapse of the USSR, more and more objects have
made their way to this country. The owners usually have some vague and
unverifialbe story as to how they came in possession of the objects. Quite
frankly, I think that Sotheby's is going to experience nightmares trying to
establish the legal ownership and provenance of soem of these objects.
 
   Obviously, NASM does not have the funds to rescue these objects. And
finding donors is very time consuming and difficult, especially because I
would have to tell them that there is a very good chance that some of the
objects would have to be returned to Russia.
 
   Given the Museum's mandate and the rather recent changes in the former
USSR, we are rather inexperienced in this situation. If anyone has any
suggestions or advice, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
    My work number is 202/357-2828, the fax is 202/786-2947.
 
Cathleen S. Lewis ([email protected])
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 9 Aug 1993 11:20:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
From:         Judith A Turner <[email protected]>
Subject:      Re: Sotheby's auction
 
Continuing the discussion that's started over Sotheby's planned December
auction of objects documenting the Soviet space program, I'd like share
some ideas that I've thought of since putting on the original message
about the NY Times article.
 
Cathy Lewis' raised some very good points in her message.  The provenance
of the objects may well be problematical but I would assume that this
is Sotheby's concern to establish to the satisfaction of whomever ends
up purchasing items.  Let's say this is the case for now, anyway.
 
Kathy Garmil mentions some possibilities for political and funding
action but before we decide that this is an American problem, consider
the following approach.
 
1.  This collection could form part of the basis for a museum located
in a third country which was never involved in the space race at all.
My personal suggestions are Greece or the Netherlands.  Greece for its
contribution to the human spirit of competition through the Olympic
Games, plus its important influence on both Western European culture
and Russian culture.  The Netherlands for its role in the awakening
of Russia under Peter the Great to navigation, exploration and international
commerce.  Given the historical and political situation, a museum devoted
to human exploration of space, regardless of the nationalities or ethnic
identities of the participants would not be a bad idea.  NASM is a
fantastic museum but it is an agent of the US government, our former
foes and hopefuly future allies throughout CIS might prefer and support
a museum in another venue than Washington,D.C.
 
2.  If former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn could be persauded
to co-chair the effort to acquire the collection and establish a new
museum, along with his opposite number from the cosmonaut corps, i.e.,
a former Soviet astronaut with political and governmental experience,
a lot of positive media and fundraising attention might come to the
project on that basis alone.
 
3.  Two immediate, non-governmental sources of funding come to mind -
the Armand Hammer Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace.  Both organizations have worked to establish some level of
understanding between East and West, despite shifting governmental
policies and changing political systems.  Other funding sources could
come from the aerospace industry and the computer industry, and all those
other industries that developed from the R&D stimulus that the space
program in the 1960's and 1970's provided.
 
This is probably all sun-inspired madness, we just enjoyed the nicest
weekend weather of this entire cold and rainy summer that's been
plaguing the upper Midwest. If there are some ideas worth discussing in
here, it seems to me that the Internet is a terrific starting point for
many-partied brainstorming.  Hopefully, people who have better access
to the people I mention here, not to mention the places, will join in.
 
Thanks for reading through.
 
Judy Turner
Milwaukee Public Museum
[email protected]
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 9 Aug 1993 11:19:35 -0700
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
From:         Anita Cohen-Williams Arizona State University
              <[email protected]>
Subject:      Sotheby's auction
 
Anita Cohen-Williams
      I'm afraid that I cannot get too worked up over the sale of 20th century
artifacts at Sotheby's when too many ancient/Indian artifacts have been sold
that way and NO ONE has said anything! Many collections of eighteenth century
Spanish artifacts, Indian baskets, etc. have passed into the hands of private
collectors, and the museum world seems to be silent.
 
Anita Cohen-Williams; Reference Services; Hayden Library
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ  85287-1006
PHONE: (602) 965-4576              FAX: (602) 965-9169
BITNET: IACAGC@ASUACAD    INTERNET: [email protected]
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 9 Aug 1993 16:09:58 EDT
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Comments:     Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2
From:         Cathy Lewis <[email protected]>
Subject:      Sotheby's auction
In-Reply-To:  note of 08/09/93 14:19
 
I do think that the experiences of the indigenous peoples with auctions and
private collectors has to inform how we deal with collecting 20th century ar
tifacts. It makes not sense to ignore the problem now only because the objects
are relatively new.
 
Cathleen S. Lewis ([email protected])
National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution
=========================================================================
Date:         Mon, 9 Aug 1993 15:51:31 -0500
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
Sender:       Museum discussion list <[email protected]>
From:         Judith A Turner <[email protected]>
Subject:      Re: Sotheby's auction
 
Cathleen Lewis is absolutely correct - two wrongs have never made a right.
As auction houses turn to more recent and closer material to fill their
catalogs and exhibit spaces, we are going to feel our history disappearing
from underfoot and hand and sight.
 
NAGPRA is much needed legislation to protect American Indians from the loss
of their patrimony and there is legislation under discussion to return
type specimens to regions where they are endemic which poses some problems
of considerable magnitude for zoological and botanical collections.  The
case of the dinosaur fossil Sue is the paleontological example, just as
the Elgin marbles represent the exploitation of a nation in the midst of
war.
 
Like I said in my initial post, if former cosmonauts and state industries
see selling objects as a way to feed and shelter their families or provide
ready cash to meet payroll, so be it.  It's hard to be extremely high-
minded about cultural issues when the wolf is at the door.
 
The question of who owns state property of the former Soviet Union is
definitely one for the lawyers; private citizens have a right to sell
personal property rather than to donate it to museums, archives and
historical societies.
 
If an auction house is the best way to realize a legitimate financial
return, then it should not be legislated against.  In no way does this
situation seem related to the illegal collection or sale of antiquities
as a earlier post seemed to be pointing to.  It took forever to legislation
on the books to make the collection of objects from Indian gravesites and
other archaeological sites illegal.  Even if it were possible to do so in
a case such as this, and I very much doubt that the courts would intervene
unless there was evidence the material was stolen from the Soviet government,
the objects would be long-gone into private hands.  Granted there's a limited
amount of any precious item, be they Van Gogh paintings, George Washington
autographs, Hopi pottery or dinosaur fossils but all of the above are
actually more plentiful than many of the objects of 20th century culture
which will someday exist only in the documentary record and not in the
actual memories of living people.
 
Judy Turner
Milwaukee Public Museum
=========================================================================
 
[I haven't yet received permission from Jim Croft of the Australian
National Botanic Gardens ([email protected]) to quote him, but he gave
an interesting example.  Public subscriptions raised 100 kilobucks to
purchase an "opalized dinosaur," whatever that is, for the Australian
Museum in Sydney so that the dinosaur wouldn't leave the country. 
Hey, I can't afford to buy Korolev's slide rule, but I'd donate a few
dollars to put it in a museum...]

Article: 69371
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Mike Smithwick)
Subject: Re: Auction of Soviet space goodies
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet News)
Organization: a2i network
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1993 00:25:47 GMT
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected]
(Josh Hopkins) writes: 

>[email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes:
>
>Does anyone in the space memorabilia market know how much this stuff is likely
>to go for?  I mean orders of magnitude here, I realize that it depends a lot 
>on the buyers.  How does one determine the authenticity of these things?
>Is it possible to bid on a Sotheby's auction without actually being there?
>
>I'm not really thinking about buying this stuff but I'm still curious what the
>answers might be.
 
In a recent LA auction a flown Soviet space suit fetched around $45K.
Apollo 11 flown items can get anywhere from $500 for smaller generic
pieces such as a chart clamp to $25000 for EVA items. Interestingly
enough, flown space covers command huge bids since there are many more
space-cover collectors than space hardware types. 
 
I'm going to get the Sotheby's catalog and budget about 30 bucks for
this one ;-). 
 
I bet that most of the items will go to museums, but the moon samples
will probably go to private hands since museums can get lunar stuff
pretty easily. 
 
mike
-- 
This message brought to you by the Happy Fun Ball! It's Happy! It's
fun!! It's the HAPPY FUN BALL!!! (Still legal in 16 states)
*** Mike Smithwick - [email protected] 
*** The above does not represent the views of The 3DO Company *** 

From:	US1RMC::"[email protected]" "Ron Baalke" 17-AUG-1993 
To:	[email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	Sagdeev Has Hopes for Russian Space Program Recovery

From the "JPL Universe"
August 13, 1993

Sagdeev has hopes for Russian space program's recovery
By Karre Marino

     While it was the Cold War of the 1950s that fueled the space race
syndrome between the United States and Soviet Union, and ultimately
enabled man to orbit Earth, and then turn his attention to the Moon
and the other planets, according to Professor Roald Z. Sagdeev, head
of the former Soviet Union's space program, if the West sits back and
allows the now-in-disarray Russian program to die, "a new syndrome
will occur, that of the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner." 

     With that pronouncement, a standing room only crowd in von Karman
Auditorium erupted in applause July 29, as Sagdeev ended his 90-minute
discussion of the former Soviet and now-Russian space program, its
history, its successes and failures, and its vitality as an important
contributor to planetary and lunar exploration. 

     Citing a "brain drain" of some 30 top Russian scientists and
engineers, "who are leaving not for material gain, but for the
opportunity to work," he proposed initiating a formula that would
rescue this community so that "it would be part of myriad
international projects." 

     After all, he noted, it was this very community that fomented the
second Russian revolution, which he termed "Russia's Big Bang."
Perestroika, he insisted, was sparked by "liberal ideas born in the
scientific community. We cannot now ignore the fate or future of this
narrow intellectual elite in Russia." 

     His suggestion? An "international fund of about $70 million,
jointly administered" by the U.S. and Russia, whereby Russian
scientists and engineers could work on less costly science projects --
for example, small remote-sensing satellites. The fund would also
provide an opportunity for university science experiments. 

     Sagdeev, who serves as director of the Institute of Space
Research in Moscow and is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the
University of Maryland, College Park, thought that annual missions
could be scheduled, as well as using small spacecraft to serve as a
testbed for experiments; they would then be launched on more expensive
Western-built spacecraft. 

     However, he dismissed the notion of the fund being sent as aid,
which he termed as "a mistake." He does not view it as aid but an
opportunity to participate in space exploration. 

     Sagdeev, who was introduced to the audience by JPL Director Dr.
Edward Stone, sprinkled his presentation with viewgraphs, humor and an
appreciation for irony. Explaining that the Soviet regime viewed the
space program as a means to prove the country's ideology superior,
Sagdeev said, "So you see, we early on established the framework for 
cooperation between the scientific community and the political
leadership." 

     With the progression of technology, Sagdeev said that he often
had to go before the general public to offer accounts of specific
missions. In the face of some disasters, however, he sometimes had
less and less to describe. So each speech grew more technical. "But
the audiences," he allowed, "were not happy with my explanations."
They essentially wanted to know why the Americans were having such
success, he related. Frustrated, Sagdeev said he finally answered, 

     " `That is because they are sons of bitches.' The audience," he
said, "gave me a standing ovation." At this, the JPL crowd erupted
into sustained laughter. 

     While he noted the many unsuccessful unmanned missions launched
by the Soviets, he also pointed to the successes of Venera, Phobus,
and the growth of the Mars generation spacecraft. And, he maintained,
Russian astronomers were beginning to discover black holes. The irony,
he said, is that the Soviet Union was now the "subject of the Big
Bang." More laughter from an appreciative lunchtime gathering. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | The hardest thing to learn
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | in life is which bridge to
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | cross and which to burn.

Article: 4511
From: [email protected] (SELINA WILLIAMS)
Newsgroups: clari.tw.aerospace,clari.news.hot.east_europe,clari.news.hot.ussr
Subject: Russia's biggest aerospace show opens its gates
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 93 12:27:30 PDT
 
	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russia is converting its swords into
plowshares, its military satellites into hi-tech space cameras, and
the results were there for all to see Tuesday at Moscow's first
international aerospace show. 

	As many as 200 foreign aerospace companies and 250 enterprises
from all over the former Soviet Union are taking part in the show, the
largest event of its kind ever held in Russia. 

	Russian military space equipment is on show for the first
time, as defense factories desperate for foreign contracts display
their wares and jostle for a place on the highly competitive market in
space hardware. 

	``Many of the firms represented at the expo are from
previously closed factories and departments of the military industrial
complex,'' said Expo-Avia manager Tanya Andrianova. 

	Russia's once rich space complex has been hit particularly
hard by Russia's painful market reforms, as procurements are cut and
subsidies slashed to once pampered and prestigious industries, forcing
them to finance themselves. 

	``They have to make money, and find new markets for their products,'' 
said Paul van Ijsselstein, a director of the Dutch firm Fokker. 

	Sovinform Sputnik, a 2-year-old Russian company specializing
in commercial sales of high resolution photographs from former
military satellites, made about $1 million in its first year, said
company sales rep Yevgeny Zakharov. 

	The firm plans to top the $50 million sales of their
competitor -- the French ``Spot Image'' -- in the next 15 years. 

	``The capacity of the market is very large,'' said Zakharov.
``Western experts estimate it to be $200 million by the year 2000.'' 

	Capitalizing on growing security risks in air travel, the
state airline Aeroflot in association with the robotics team at
Moscow's Kurchatov Institute recently designed and built an airport
bomb disposal device which they hope to sell for $100,000, said
engineer Sergei Plotnikov. 

	But some foreign companies, such as the Dutch Fokker Space and
Systems, who are currently designing robotic parts for the second
generation MIR-2 space station, were more interested in long-term
rather than short-term gains. 

	``The Soviet space industry is more experienced than in the
U.S.'' said van Ijsselstein of Fokker. ``Our aim is to collaborate with 
them, combining their strengths with ours, with hopes of future profit.'' 

	A wide range of Russian-manufactured meteorological,
navigational and communications satellites are on display for the
first time, as well as 130 aircraft ranging from helicopters to
passenger airliners and transport planes. 

	Running until Sept. 5, the exhibition has a museum section
charting the history of Soviet aviation, as well as an airfield for
demonstrations of Russian-made aircraft. 

    re .34
    
>	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russia is converting its swords into
>plowshares, its military satellites into hi-tech space cameras, and
>the results were there for all to see Tuesday at Moscow's first
>international aerospace show. 
    
    The Enquirer will probably be their best customer ;^).   Think
    of it...(fill in star here) sunbathing in their back yard ;^).
    
    Actually a co-worker had the idea of selling people photos of their
    house certified to be taken from space by the KGB.  Heck, I'd buy one
    if it was halfway reasonable.
    
    fred();

Article: 73703
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian space photos, newletter advertisement
Organization: Motorola
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 19:36:13 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
I received this in the mail a few weeks ago, I hope it is of interest.
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL
---------------------------------------
 
Russian company "Vidoekosmos", established in 1990, aims to avail the 
people in all countries in all the world of any attractive and 
accessible information on cosmonautics and cosmonauts of our country. 
It was one of the few companies pioneering the field. 
 
Our company has a huge information and photo archive. Photo archive 
include many thousands of slides, negatives and photos. They are of 
excellant quality and mainly made using Kodak photo materials. Portraits 
of cosmoanuts, space crews, .... taken at the training center of cosmonauts 
(TsPK), in Zvezdny town, in Baykonur, after landing, during vacation .... 
Our photo archive contains slides and negatives taken since 1961 until now.
We are working on enlarging them.
.....
Another main part of our activity is publishing a space bulletin 
"Novisti Kosmonavtiki" for 1992 (26 issues):  US$5 each + $2 postage. 
Total US$182. For 1993 (26 issues) US$182. Both 1992 and 1993 (52 issues)
US$328.
 
Our company would like to offer you tables (in English) of all enrollments 
of Soviet/Russian cosmonauts in teams. The tables contain the following 
information:  Dates of selection and retirement, full names, dates when 
they were born/died, number of flights, launching and landing spacecraft,
duration of each flight, dates of launching and landing.                 
 
Table 1 - Air Force team of cosmonauts (111 military pilot-cosmonauts)  
Table 2 - OKB Korolev team of cosmonauts (42 engineer pilot-cosmonauts)  
Table 3 - IMBP team of cosmonauts (20 civilian pilot-cosmonauts) 
Table 4 - LII team of cosmonauts (11 civilian test-pilot-cosmonauts)  
Table 5 - OKB Chelomey team of cosmonauts (111 engineer pilot-cosmonauts)  
Table 6 - NII team of cosmonauts (111 military test-pilot-cosmonauts)  
Table 7 - other teams of cosmonauts (18 cosmonauts)  
 
Sergey H. Shamsutdinov
Tel: 217-8147
executive officer information department Videokosmos
 
Address:
 
127427, Russia,
Moscow, 
Street of Korolev
dom 12, stroeniye 3
Videokosmos

Article: 74196
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian space photos & news advert - repost
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1993 18:23:21 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
In my previous post I left out critical order information which I
have added below (and corrected typos). I also have a FAX number 6 
months old for Videokosmos, it's 7-501-215-2055. I haven't tried any of 
these numbers or Western Union yet, but plan to in the near future.
The last package I got FROM Russia was in transit for almost 5 months
so patience is needed, and Russian & English addressing is
recommended! If you really think you want to see the 5 page advert
I can send a complete photocopy to... maybe the first couple people
who ask via e-mail.
 
I've never done business with Videokosmos, but they've been 
around for years like it says below. They seem to be a reputable
company and were credited as producers of a video made by NPO 
Energia last year and shown at the World Space Congress.  
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL
------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Russian company "Vidoekosmos", established in 1990, aims to avail the
people in all countries in all the world of any attractive and
accessible information on cosmonautics and cosmonauts of our country.
It was one of the few companies pioneering the field.
 
Our company has a hugh information and photo archive. Photo archive
include many thousands of slides, negatives and photos. They are of
excellant quality and mainly made using Kodak photo materials. Portraits
of cosmoanuts, space crews, .... taken at the training center of cosmonauts
(TsPK), in Zvezdny town, in Baykonur, after landing, during vacation ....
Our photo archive contains slides and negatives taken since 1961 until now.
We are working on enlarging them.
 
Photos  are 10x15mm, 15x20mm, and 20x30mm, B&W or color and priced from
$4 to $24 each.
.....
Another main part of our activity is publishing a space bulletin
"Novisti Kosmonavtiki" for 1992 (26 issues):  US$5 each + $2 postage.
Total US$182. For 1993 (26 issues) US$182. Both 1992 and 1993 (52 issues)
US$328.
 
Our company would like to offer you tables (in English) of all enrollments
of Soviet/Russian cosmonauts in teams. The tables contain the following
information: dates of selection and retirement, full names, dates when
they were born/died, number of flights, launching and landing spacecraft,
duration of each flight, dates of launching and landing.
 
Table 1 - Air Force team of cosmonauts (111 military pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 2 - OKB Korolev team of cosmonauts (42 engineer pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 3 - IMBP team of cosmonauts (20 civilian pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 4 - LII team of cosmonauts (11 civilian test-pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 5 - OKB Chelomey team of cosmonauts (6 engineer pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 6 - NII team of cosmonauts (13 military test-pilot-cosmonauts)
Table 7 - other teams of cosmonauts (18 cosmonauts)
Set of tables is $20 + $3 postage.
 
Payment is by western Union money order made out to :
 
"Russia, Moscow, Mr. S.H.Shamsutdinov, tel. 217-81-47,
amount of payment, number of money order, date, order items"
 
Sincerely yours,
Sergey H. Shamsutdinov
 

Article: 74741
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Baykonur collapse is rumor and hearsay
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 18:35:03 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
From Space News, Sept. 27-Oct 3, 1993, p. 4
"Report: Baikonur Demise Overstated", by Andrew Lawler
 
[Summary]
 
A report prepared for the White House by Anser Corp. states, "Reports
concerning the rapid deterioration of Baikonur [cosmodrome] appear to
be greatly exaggerated and almost entirely false" 
 
Anser employees visited the cosmodrome on Sept. 22-26, and by phone
interview say reports of Baikonur's imminent collapse are "rumor and
hearsay". 
 
"Both the Proton and Soyuz facilities were in excellent shape"
 
"There were no unusual signs of wear at either of these facilities"
 
At Leninsk [the city near Baykonur which houses most of the workers]
"seems to be in a serious decline" population is estimated to have
fallen 40% from its peak of 100,000. [I think a lot of the decrease
must be attributed to military cuts]
 
"Russian media coverage of Baikonur in recent months has highlighted
decaying launch pads, terrible living standards and numerous cases
of theft. One unnamed official ... "had cooperated in exaggerating
the seriousness of the situation" in order to win more funding
from the Russian parliament." [something we don't have to worry about
for a few months...]
 
"One Russian video, for example, showed decaying launch pads actually
were pictures of an older Proton pad that had not been used in 25 years..."
 
"Brief inspection of the working launch facilities seemed to confirm
the denial of vandalism or theft"..."'Proton and Soyuz pads appear 
in excellent working order'" according to the Anser employees.
 
"James Oberg...said...'There is no longer hope for improvement-there
is only hope that the decay will slow...It is irreversible in the sense 
that people have to work there, and it is not practical to expect them 
to.'" [I stress that you should appreciate the last remark.] 
 
[This article seems to hint that the confusion is being caused by
people combining Leninsk's problems to Baykonurs. Leninsk grew out of
the temporary shelters used to house the first workers at Baykonur.
Military workers arrived for temporary duty for short period so there
was little thought about developing a city. These assignments
sometimes turned out to last 20 years, so families joined the workers
and combined with the general poor Soviet living standards, especially
for military personnel, this was a disaster in the making. There is
little evidence to me living conditions have ever been good by western
standards, and combined with the new freedom in the old USSR, I think
a few riots should be expected, it does not mean the end of Baykonur
to riot over the broken sewer pipes. They riot, a few get arrested and
get to leave and the rest eventually get new sewer pipes because of
currency flowing into Russia for Mir flights, Protons, etc...It may
not be directly related, but western funding can relieve the budget
pressures that would otherwise only make things worse.] 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 48053
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Russian space surveillance
Date: 5 Dec 93 12:53:59 PST
Organization: Science Applications Int'l Corp./San Diego
 
     The Russian space surveillance systems seems to be coming out of
the closet a bit.  Browsing in a local library last week, I found an
article* on their catalogue maintenance procedures. The article is
copyrighted, so I won't translate more than excerpts -- it will be out
in the translation journal "Cosmic Research" (ISSN 0010-9525) fairly
soon anyway.  The overall impression is that they do things pretty much 
in the same way as NORAD (or SPACOM or whatever it's called these days). 
 
Among the interesting items:
 
- The catalog contains > 5,000 items and has been maintained for more
than 20 years.  About 10% of the entries are spacecraft; the rest is
space junk ("kosmicheskiy musor")  of one sort or another. 
 
- Primary input is from radars located in the central and peripheral
areas of the FUUSR.  More than 50,000 observations are performed each
day.  Objects are 10 cm and larger in size. 
 
- Processing of data and catalogue maintenance are largely automatic,
augmented by human intervention in anomalous cases. 
 
- Mean accuracy of a radar position, as determined in August 1991, 
was better than 2.5 km for 50% of objects and better than 8 km for 90%
of objects. 
 
- Mean accuracy of prediction of objects' positions as a function of
time and orbital parameters was determined during an experiment
conducted in March through May of 1990 and is given in the following
table (e is eccentricity, H is altitude in km, table entries are in
km.  Read this, for example, as "in the range of altitudes between 400
and 1500 km and for eccentricities < 0.05, which includes 82% of
catalogue entries, the position of a satellites can be predicted with
an accuracy of 7.0 km five days ahead.") 
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
             |      Prediction interval, days    |  % objects
             | 1   | 2   | 3   | 4   | 5   | 6   |  in class
---------------------------------------------------------------
H < 400      |     |     |     |     |     |     |
 e > 0.05    | 2.0 | 4.2 | 7.7 | 15  | 29  | 60  |    12
 e < 0.05    | 8.6 | 27  | 65  |  -  | -   | -   |    1
---------------------------------------------------------------
400< H <1500 |     |     |     |     |     |     |
 e < 0.05    | 1.0 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 4.7 | 7.0 | 15  |    82
---------------------------------------------------------------
H > 1500     |                                   |
 e < 0.05    | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 3.4 |    5
---------------------------------------------------------------
 
  There's also a discussion of the accuracy with which satellite
decays are predicted, and some description of the dynamic models
used.  All in all a pretty interesting article. 
 
* Vedeniye Kataloga Kosmicheskikh Ob"yektov
  [Maintaining the Space Object Catalogue]
  by Z.N. Khutorovskiy
  Kosmicheskiye Issledovaniya, Vol.31, No.4, 1993 (ISSN 0023-4206)
 

Article: 79111
From: [email protected] (Brian Reynolds)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Where to find info about / buy space suit?
Date: 6 Dec 1993 19:26:38 -0500
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
 
Sotheby's in New York City will be holding an auction on Saturday
12/11/93 of former Soviet space hardware.  Everything from patches to
capsules.  On the local news they even showed the suit Alexi L (Ack!
can't remember the name, or spell it) used to make the first
spacewalk.  He was at the auction house and said that seeing his suit
again he could remember what it felt like walking in space that first
time.  There were what looked like price tags hanging from the suit,
which was suspended from the ceilng as if it were floating in space.
 
All this week Sotheby's will be open to the public so that people can
view the exhibit.  I plan on going, although probably the only thing
I'll be able to afford is the auction catalog.
 
-- 
Brian Reynolds                         | "Life is like a sewer, what you
[email protected]                     |   get out of it depends on what
Who never speaks officially for panix. |   you put into it."
                                       |    -- Tom Lehrer

Article: 79149
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian space auction catalog
Organization: Motorola
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 15:13:35 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
FYI
 
The auction:
 
Sotheby's Russian Space Auction is on Saturday Dec. 11 in New York.
Over 200 items are on display all the proceeding week. 
 
The catalog:
 
For those with a serious interest in the Russian space program, the
catalog available from Sotheby's (800-444-3709 or 203-847-0465) is a
nice resource of photographs. The catalog is over 100 pages with high
quality photos of the more important items. There are excerpts of the
written materials (Mishin's diary, Feoktistov's once classified design
notes, congratulatory telegrams, etc..), and some stories to document
the items use or history. Most of the text is fairly accurate and I
could only find a few mistakes in the catalogs descriptions of the
items. The text will be interesting to those who like to read stories
about Soviet space history. Sotheby's consulted with western experts
while writing the catalog including James Oberg, Charles Vick and
David Woods, and references my own book a few times. 
 
The items for sale:
 
Some of the more interesting items are small Moon rock chips, practice
space suits of Gagarin and Lenonov, a lunar space suit, the Salyut 5
film return capsule, an Almaz/Star Module capsule, the Soyuz TM-10
capsule, flight suits, pressure suits, autographed photos, log books,
EVA suit gloves, Soyuz capsule survival gear, medals and awards,
personal effects of Korolev and Gagarin, etc... Prices generally start
in the $1-2000 range and top out at $3-5,000,000 for the Soyuz TM-10
capsule. Probably the most questionable item for sale is a title from
NPO Lavochkin for the Luna 17 lander and Lunakhod-1 on the Moon. 
  
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 79859
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Subject: Sotheby's space auction: some results
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: [via International Space University]
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 23:52:42 GMT
 
Regarding the Sotheby's auction of Soviet space memorablilia on
Saturday, 11 December, I managed to find a story on p. 3 of Sunday's
*Chicago Tribune* (from the New York Times News Service). 
 
They managed to sell 227 items for a total of $6.8 million. This is
close to Sotheby's estimate that the sale would bring five to seven
megabucks. 
 
The title to the Luna 17 lander and Lunokhod 1 buggy went for $68,500
to an anonymous buyer.  He or she will have to go to the Mare Imbrium
to pick them up, of course.  At least if you buy the Brooklyn Bridge,
it's easy to get a ticket to visit your bridge!
 
Selling price on other items:
 
Moon rocks (I presume the Luna 16 samples mentioned in earlier
accounts): three rocks for        $442,500
"Space capsule:"                 $1.7 million
Another space capsule:            $552,500
Letter from Khrushchev to Gagarin: $60,000
Medal awarded to Gagarin:          $55,000
First eating utensils in space:      $6900
 
No mention of the never-used Moon suit, other space suits, or Sergei
Korolev's slide rule. 
 
Alas, the article says very little about the buyers except that they
included art dealers, hobbyists, and museums.  The capsules went to an
"unidentified American" who hopes to return them to Russian museums
some day.  (Given the number of Soyuz flights to date, I would expect
that museums across the FSU are already pretty well equipped with
re-entry modules.  Can anyone confirm this guess?  At any rate, the
Soyuz capsule was far from the most historically significant item in
the auction!) 
 
I expect we will see multiple detailed accounts in the space magazines
in the course of time.  It's a good story.
 
     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [email protected]
   -   -       Internet:  [email protected]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43009::HIGGINS 

Article: 79864
From: [email protected] (Jan Vorbrueggen)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Sotheby's space auction: some results
Date: 15 Dec 93 10:24:32 GMT
Organization: Institut fuer Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Germany
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Bill
Higgins-- Beam Jockey) writes: 
 
   [...] or Sergei Korolev's slide rule.
 
....which, according to a (radio?) report here, was made in Germany in
1930.  It was sold, apparently, but I can't remember the price. 
 
	Jan

Article: 48779
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Re: Sotheby's space auction
Date: 17 Dec 1993 18:33 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Charles Radley) writes... 

> -=> Quoting [email protected] to All <=-
> 
> Hi> i> Message-ID: <[email protected]>
> Hi> Newsgroup: sci.space
> Hi> Organization: [via International Space University]
> 
> Hi> Regarding the Sotheby's auction of Soviet space memorablilia on
> 
> Hi> Selling price on other items:
> 
> Hi> Moon rocks (I presume the Luna 16 samples mentioned in earlier
> Hi> accounts): three rocks for        $442,500
> 
>How many grams of moonrock were sold for this sum ?
> 
>I am interested to calculate the Gem Carat value.
 
The Moon rocks were advertised as "rock fragments", but after talking
to the auction house, they admitted it is more closer to being moon
dust.  The moon dust was collected from the "first Luna mission",
which I interpreted as meaning the first successful Luna mission that
returned lunar soil, which would make it Luna 16.  Luna 16 was
launched on September 12, 1970 and soft landed on the Moon on
September 20.  A drill was used to collect 101 grams of lunar
material.  The lunar sample was returned to Earth on September 24. 
Three grams of the Luna 16 sample was exchanged in 1971 for 3 grams of
Apollo 11 and 3 grams of Apollo 12 lunar samples.  The Luna 16 lunar
material that was auctioned off is a very small sample and my
impression was that there is less than a gram there. The moon dust is
encased in a metal box with a clear plastic top, and as far as I can
determine has been sealed in this box for at least 20 years. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   Galileo S-Band     | "Why must hailstones always
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 |  be the size of something
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |  else?"   George Carlin 

Article: 80110
From: [email protected] (Brian Reynolds)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Sotheby's space auction
Date: 18 Dec 1993 15:19:33 -0500
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
 
Here is the entry from the auction catalog.  Capitalization is as in
the original, italics are _under-scored_.  I have reformatted it to
fit 80 columns.
 
BEGIN QUOTE
 
Luna 16, 12-24 September 1970
Lunar rocks, returned to Earth by the unmanned _Luna_16_ expedition.
 
Three samples of lunar rock, encased under glass within a metal block
positioned below an adjustable lens, the whole secured to a metal base
labelled [Cyrillic inscription I can't reproduce -BFR] (Soil particles
- Luna-16).
 
LUNAR ROCKS from the first automated sample retrieval from the moon.
_Luna_16_ marked one of the finest technilogical achievements of the
Soviet space program.  During the 1960s, the Soviets pursued two
concurrent lunar programs, one unmanned and one (hoped-for) manned.
The unmanned program had already scored a number of great successes:
the first probe to reach the moon (_Luna_2_, September 1969), [sic]
the first to return pictures of the dark side of the moon (_Luna_3_,
October 1959), the first soft or controlled landing on the moon
(_Luna_9_, January-February 1966), and the first to orbit the moon
(_Luna_10_, March-April 1966).  The manned program proceeded less
sure-footedly, and by the late 1960s it became clear that the Americans 
would, barring disaster, be the first to set foot on the moon.
 
Just two days before the great _Apollo_11_ launch of 16 July 1969,
_Luna_15_ had been launched by the Soviets with the hopes of making an
automated acquisition and retrieval of lunar samples; this attempt,
however, failed, the probe crashing to the moon's surface the day Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Armstrong [sic] stepped out of their lunar module.
Fourteen months later, the _Luna_16_ mission was finally successful.
The probe landed safely and upright within the Mare Fecunditatis south
of the Crisium basin rim, drilled a hole in the moon's surface to the
depth of 35 cm, extracted a core sample, moved it upward into the
return stage, blasted off, and brought the core and overlying more
fragmented soil safely back to Earth.
 
The central fragment is basalt with feldspar crystals visible typical
of mare terrain.  The adjoining larger fragments are typical surficial
debris called regolith; finely structured vesicular agglutinates
showing glass coatings caused by age-old micro-meteorite impact.  A
variety of analyses have revealed minute traces of more than 70
elements in the totality of the _Luna_16_ sample.  Tests on other
basalt fragments from the sample made at California Institute of
Technology using rubidium-strontium isotopes have dated the rock to
approximately 3.4 billion years old.
 
Authentic lunar samples available for public acquisition may be
qualified as EXTREMELY RARE.  The samples returned to Earth from the
Apollo expeditions are under tightest registration and control by
NASA.  The present samples were given to Mme. Koroleva, widow of
Sergei Koroleva, "Chief Designer," as a sign of respect for her late
husband's incalculable contributions in forming the Soviet space
program.  THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT A SAMPLE FROM ANOTHER WORLD IS
BEING OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC.
 
References: Don E. Wilhelms, _To_a_Rocky_Moon:_A_Geologist's_History_
_of_Lunar_Exploration_ (1992), pp. 243-244 and passim; K. Keil,
G. Kurat, M. Prinz, and J. Green "Lithic fragments, glasses and
chondrules from Luna 16 finds," _Earth_and_Planetary_Science_Letters_
13 (1972): 243-256.
 
END QUOTE
 
Particles is an accurate description.  They are bigger than dust
grains, but much smaller than pebbles.  Definitely less than a gram.
 
>I intend to calculate whether a commercial sample return mission could
>be financed for a profit.
 
>Luna-16 returned about  100 grams, if all of this were sold then it would
>not cover the  $ 50 to $ 100 million mission cost.
 
>But if this price were paid for a few grams, then it gets interesting.
 
Personally I think there would probably be a big difference in the
value of samples returned on an exploration mission (higher), and
samples brought back specifically to be resold (lower).
 
-- 
Brian Reynolds           | "Life is like a sewer, what you get out of it
[email protected]       |  depends on what you put into it."
NAR# 54438 - IPMS# 30162 |   -- Tom Lehrer
 
Article: 48874
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Re: Value of the next load? (was Re: Sotheby's space auction)
Date: 19 Dec 1993 21:41 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
This price paid at this auction was *way* over anything reasonable and I 
attribute it to being caught up in the heat of the moment, which sometimes 
happens at auctions.  The price on the Apollo moon dust was a little over 
$40,000.
 
>Suppose we were to fly to the Moon and obtain more... say we found
>another copy of Luna 16/20/24 in some Ukranian warehouse, gassed it
>up, got back another 100 grams, and tried to sell it at Sotheby's or
>on the gem market.   A natural question to Charles (and other economic
>wizards reading this):  How do you estimate the value of this sample?
 
That is the crux of the problem, you won't be able to reliably predict
what the market demand will be in the situation like this.  Also, I
don't think the sale of 100 grams would pay for the mission.  I would
look into ways of increasing the sample return. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   Galileo S-Band     | "Why must hailstones always
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 |  be the size of something
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |  else?"   George Carlin 

Article: 6123
From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.tw.space
Subject: Kazakhstan agrees to lease space launch center to Russia
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 93 3:45:06 PST
 
	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Kazakhstan has agreed in principle Saturday to
lease the Baikonur space center, which it cannot to afford to finance
on its own, to Russia, the Interfax news agency said. 

	Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin concluded a
preliminary accord on leasing the facility with his Kazakh counterpart
Sergei Tereshchenko during a meeting in the Kazakhstan capital Alma
Ata, the news agency said. 

	The sprawling Baikonur sapce center in northern Kazakhstan was
the launch site of the first man-made satellite, the Sputnik 1, and of
the first manned flight into space by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. 

	Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin said under the accord,
Russia would pay rent on the center partly in the form of information
services provided by satellites launched from Baikonur. 

	Specific details of the leasing agreement still have to be
determined, Shokhin said, though he suggested the lease should be for
99 years. 

	Shokhin said a final agreement may be ready for approval by a
planned Feb. 1994 summit between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. 

	Shokhin said the accord also calls for Russia to take
responsibility for dismantling, reprocessing and selling off
components from Kazakhstan's nuclear missiles. Part of the proceeds
from the sale of valuable components would be handed over to Kazakhstan. 

Article: 81264
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.policy
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Sotheby's space catalog half price
Organization: Motorola
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 15:42:56 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
I heard from someone that the Sotheby's Russian Space Hisotry catalog
was now on sale for half price (about $16). This is supposed to last
until sometime next month when the excess will be sold off in bulk to
someone else. 
 
The catalog has many good photos of the auction items and good stories
and background information. Its over 100 pages and all color with a
paperback binding. They can be ordered at telephone 800-444-3709. 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 581
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: 1994 Russian Space Agency Funding
Organization: Motorola
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 1994 19:32:15 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
Tim Furniss reports (in Jan 19-25 Flight International p. 23) that
Chernomyrdin has signed a budget decree for the Russian Space Agency
for 1994. Included are : 
 
16 Billion Roubles ($13M) for Baykonur 
167 B Roubles for R & D projects
81.8 B Roubles for space equipment
10 B Roubles for construction
 
Under this decree the Rus and Energia-M booster projects are approved
for continued development and the Energia and Buran are not. 
 
There are also words the the effect that a new launch site might be
built to replace Baykonur, but this would take years to realize and is
more to put pressure on Kazakstan to continue cooperating with Baykonur. 
 
This decree report is nice, but just as in US politics, don't expect
everything to happen just as planned.  Just because funding is approved 
by Chernomyrdin for something or not doesn't mean it will absolutely
happen. 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 701
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Russian Space News
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 1994 01:47:12 GMT
Organization: Motorola
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
In the news:
 
Interavia reports (Interavia, Jan 1994) that the current stable
of boosters will be replaced by just 4 lines of boosters:
 
Rus - (successor to the Soyuz-Molniya) which as been discussed
on the net before... reengined upper stage, new control systems,
etc. for the old R-7 Soyuz booster.
 
Zenit - (nothing new happening apparently)
 
Proton-M - this is the long hardly more than rumored upgrade of
the Proton (UR500K). Plans now are for 3 varients, the standard
3 stage Proton with a new 5x20 M faring and new digital guidance,
improved fuel managenent and flight control systems. The second
version adds a 4th stage (LOX-LH) now finishing development, and
the third version adds a 5th stage (LOX-LH) which has already
been tested twice (when ?). The last version apparently can
put 10,400 kg in GTO and 4400 kg in GEO. First flights expected
in 1996-97. The 3 stage version should make lofting space station
components a lot easier with its much bigger 'hammerhead' shroud.
 
Energia-M - This project still has some government support even
though it's been going on for over 5 years with not much more
than a structural test model to show for itself (publicially).
This version puts 34-35,000 kg into LEO. Other Energia/Buran 
projects are officially DEAD unless someone else can be found
to pay for them (see last weeks Av. Week for related article).
 
A skelton crew maintains the launch pads (needed for Energia-M)
but reports exist that they are not usable in their current state.
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 84087
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected]
Subject: Very long, but very interesting and useful
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: [via International Space University]
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 00:12:04 GMT
 
Dear Internet User:
 
        We are the Washington office of the Russian space
organization, NPO Energia. We have read with interest the many
questions users on Internet have had regarding the Russian space
program, and working with NASA. Here is a copy of a fact sheet we sent
to Congress late last year, which answers many questions about
cooperation. We are now developing other fact sheets and will keep you
informed of our progress as we work to bring about a truely international 
space program that is commercially driven. We hope this is of interest 
to you. 
 
Background:
 
U.S.-Russia Cooperation in Space
 
On September 2nd, in a White House ceremony, Vice President Al Gore
and Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin signed three ambitious
documents that heralded a new era in space cooperation. 
 
The agreements allowed the Russians to enter the lucrative commercial
satellite launch business, and outlined use of the Russian space
station MIR by NASA for better understanding of our future space
program. It also called for the two countries to explore working
together as partners on a RtrulyS international space station, as Mr.
Gore announced. 
 
It is bold and sweeping affirmation of both the changing relations
between our two countries, and that NASA can--and should--play a role
in the post-cold war era. 
 
It was made possible by the signing of the  Missile Export Controls
Agreement by both countries. 
 
NPO Energia Ltd., a subsidiary of the Russian space organization NPO
Energia, has prepared this informational  briefing to answer some of
the basic questions you may have. 
 
Human Space Exploration: What Was Agreed To 
 
        The United States and Russia agreed to expand the current
program of cooperation in space science and exploration. Both
countries agreed to undertake a far-reaching cooperative human space
flight program. 
 
Specifically, it was agreed that:

        --both parties would operate in an orbit accessible to both programs. 
The inclination of this international orbit is 51.6 degrees;

        --utilize compatible service systems so there is reduced waste in 
modification costs.
 
        The agreement was divided into several phases:
 
Phase I: Use of the MIR I Space Station  1994-1997
 
        The Russian MIR I space station will be made available for U.S. 
experiments for up to a total of two years of time in orbit.

        The U.S. will make use of the Russian station modules, RPriorodaS and 
RSpecktr,S which are being readied for launch. These modules will be furnished 
with some American hardware.

        The two sides will work on joint development of life support and 
control systems, and development of a common space suit.

        Use of the MIR 1 is vital to NASA because it provides first-hand 
experience in using a space station.

        It should also be noted that an unspoken objective of phase I is to 
put an end to the Cold War rivalry and bestow onto our space programs a new 
symbol of realistic cooperation, and not confrontation.
 
Phase II: Use of MIR II module     1996-on
 
        It was agreed that an interim human-tended space platform would be 
created via use of the MIR II module in conjunction with a U.S. laboratory 
module and the U.S. space shuttle. 
 
        This phase of construction would also involve greater understanding of 
using different transportation systems, from the Russian Soyuz to the American 
space shuttle. If successful, it would lead to a RtrulyS international space 
station that would utilize the resources of all nations of the world.
 
        It was further agreed that the Russian Space Agency and NASA would 
present a plan to implement this program by November 1, 1993.
 
        The United States agreed to pay $397 million over four years
for use of the MIR 1 space station, including flights to the MIR and
U.S. equipment and  research conducted on the MIR 1. 
 
        In essence, the U.S. is using the MIR 1 space station as a stepping 
stone to our own long-duration space program, and as a vehicle for furthering 
the reform movement in Russia today.
 
Who signed this agreement?
 
        The joint statement on space cooperation between Prime Minister 
Chernomyrdin of Russia and Vice President Al Gore of the United States was 
signed off on a technical level by NASA, the Russian Space Agency and NPO 
Energia. 
 
Why is NPO Energia involved?
  
        Under the regulations of the Russian Republic, NPO Energia has control 
of many of its assets; these assets are both space based and ground-based.  
Therefore, NPO Energia must Rsign-offS on programs involving its own assets. 
 
What is NPO Energia?
 
        NPO Energia is the worldUs oldest and largest space organization. Like 
many  Russian organizations today, it is gradually being transformed into a 
commercial company. It holds a distinguished place in space history, as it was 
the lead organization that:

        --developed the Sputnik and conducted the flight of Yuri Gagarin;

        --developed the worldUs first space station program, the Salyut series;

        --developed and today operates the worldUs only space station, the MIR;

        --developed and launched the space shuttle Buran and the heavy-lift 
launch vehicle, the Energia;

        --manufacturers of world-class space hardware, ranging from the 
D-Block of the Proton launch vehicle, the Soyuz TM space vehicle now being 
considered by NASA as a crew emergency return vehicle,  to communication 
satellites.
 
        NPO Energia is an organization sophisticated in cooperation
with the West. NPO Energia was the lead organization on the Russian
side of Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. 
 
        Today, NPO Energia has negotiated commercial contracts with
many organizations and corporations, for space services, astronaut
training, remote sensing and guest research flights on the MIR space
station. 
 
        According to industry publications, NPO Energia has earned
roughly $12 million for several 7-day research programs onboard the
MIR 1 space station. The total price tag for the two-years worth of
U.S. use of the MIR I is, therefore, a very competitive price. 
 
        In the United States, NPO Energia has concluded commercial
contracts with Rockwell International, Lockheed Aerospace, Boeing
Aerospace, NASA and other corporations, both aerospace and
non-aerospace. 
 
        More so than most Russian organizations NPO Energia is
experienced in business, in cooperation, and has the resources to
continue space operations. Indeed, in a November 1992 interview, when
the noted Wall Street aerospace analyst Wolfgang Demisch was asked to
name Rthe strongest space company,S his answer was RNPO Energia.S 
 
What is the status of the Russian space program?
 
        Despite all the political uncertainties, the Russian space program 
continues its operational status, and continues to evolve. Launches are still 
continuing at a rate higher than the United States.
 
        The MIR I space station continues to be permanently manned. It
has been habituated throughout this year, including a visit by a
European researcher.  The cargo resupply from the Progress automated
cargo vehicles also continues on a routine basis. 
 
        With the collapse of the Soviet Union, can we trust the Republics of 
Ukraine, Russia and Kzakhstan to work together on space?
 
        These new Republics have already proven that the answer is yes.
 
        There is no more positive symbol of cooperation for the Republics than 
space exploration.
 
        The Russian Republic has shown itself willing to reach out to the 
other Republics. For example, the new international space station will involve 
the Ukraine-launch vehicles, the Zenit, and will continue to use Balkinour.
 
        Relations with Kazakhstan are good. Kazakhstan has been included in 
all joint stock companies in Russia that involve the Balkinour launch facility; 
and the proposed international space station will benefit this Republic, hence 
their written and vocal support for the US-Russian cooperation in space.
 
We read about food riots and crumbling infrastructure, what is the situation 
at the launch site in Kazakhstan?
 
        Despite reports of some problems, the Russian space program has 
continued at a pace that has surprised Western space experts. The RexpectedS 
collapse in launch rates has never taken place. 
 
        The Baikonur launch site it is a huge, well-protected facility, one 
that is central to the economic health of this new Republic. The Kazakhstan 
government is looking to the future and has discussions underway with other 
nations, and U.S. corporations, for obtaining capital to improve the launch 
facilities. 
 
        The launch facilities in Kazahkstan will be an important part of 
international space programs for decades to come.
 
Under This Agreement, How much of the Russian space hardware is developed?
 
        In phase I, the agreements calls for NASA to make use of the orbiting 
MIR 1 and some of its modules.

        In phase II and beyond, NASA will rely on Russian hardware that is 
already flight proven. The MIR 2, for example, will use a module that is based 
on the MIR 1.

        --The Proton which would fly their modules has flown 76 times since 
1986 with a 95% success rate;

        --The Soyuz booster, which is both a cargo and manned vehicle, has 
flown 687(!) times since 1986, with a 95% success rate.

        --Their newest launch vehicle, the Zenit, has flown 20 times with a 
75% rate; this vehicle is important, as it fully involves Ukraine into the 
program. As the launch rate increases, so too will the success rate. Indeed, a 
successful flight has just taken place for Zenit.
                        
        Therefore, most of the hardware that America will use is flight proven 
and well understood by the Russians.
 
        The agreement calls for America to use the current RRussian orbitS Why 
didnUt they come to our inclination of 28 degrees?
 
        The RussianUs launch from more higher latitudes than we from
the Kennedy Space Center. Their launch vehicles cannot go RdownS to 28
degrees with any normal amount of payload. We can, with some
modifications to the Space Shuttle, fly to 51.6 degrees, as was seen
on the Russian-American shuttle flight in January. 
 
        Also, at 51.6 degrees the French Ariane rocket could service the 
international space station.
                
        --This international orbit inclination provides emergency RredundancyS 
for the Space Shuttle and for the crew of the Space Station.
 
        Does This Agreement Cost Us Aerospace Jobs?
 
No. It helps keep AmericaUs aerospace base strong by:
 
--making Space Station a reality far sooner than otherwise expected;

--provides back-up systems to assure that another Space Shuttle shut-down does 
not shut down our manned involvement in space and cause massive unemployment in 
our space industry;

--keeps American industry competitive on international programs by lowering 
the cost of doing business in space, hence the recent agreements announced by 
Pratt & Whitney, Comsat, Rockwell and other U.S. corporations with Russian 
space organizations;

--providing frequent opportunities for American scientists and researchers to 
fly projects in space; 

--reverses the loss of younger researchers leaving space exploration and 
research out of frustration and lack of opportunity;

--providing a program  for the peaceful use of hardware developed by DoD 
contracts and expertise;

--developing a U.S. community of industry users and commercial demand for 
space.
                                
In short, routine access to space will allow the growth, creativity and 
imagination of our industry to flourish in space.
 
        Russia Gains:
 
--support for non-military space programs;
--reinforcement for adherence to international missile controls;
--concrete reward for political and economic reforms;
--economic basis for creation of companies from huge state-controlled 
organizations.
 
while at the same time:
 
        America Gains:
 
--we leverage existing space dollars
--we provide promised programs sooner and at less cost
--we support the new countries of the former Soviet Union in a way that is     
 beneficial to all sides
--our aerospace corporations have a greater chance for sophisticated space 
work;
--we accelerate the conversation of  Russian military organizations into more 
peaceful space purposes
 
Who Controls The New Space Station
 
        The Russian organizations would have much say over the operation of 
the international space station. Especially in the beginning, when the MIR 2 
core module is the only habitable module. 
 
        Though we have to wait until specific details are formulated, the 
operation of this international space station will involve many countries, and 
of course the Mission Control centers of Russia and NASA. But America has not 
RsurrenderedS its leadership--instead it has taken a giant step forward for 
reform in Russia, for lowering the cost of U.S. space programs, and for 
creating new opportunities for U.S. aerospace companies in a far more robust 
U.S. space program.
 
Since this fact sheet was written, NASA and the Russian Space Agency, with 
full participation from NPO Energia, have signed a four year, four hundred 
million dollar agreement for use of the MIR 1 serv ices. We will keep you 
informed as the business of space cooperation continues to develop.
 
--NPO Energia Ltd., Washington, DC.

Article: 1058
From: [email protected] (Timothy Carone)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Russian Space Capabilities
Date: 10 Mar 1994 01:43:21 GMT
Organization: Center For Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics
 
	I have had some recent experiences with the Russian Space
Program and from these, it is not clear to me that teaming up with the
Russians is in our best interests.  Let me detail my experiences and I
would appreciate hearing from others.  It would be interesting to know
if others have had better times than I have had. 
 
	We are supposed to be building an instrument to fly on the
Russian Spectrum-X-Gamma satellite, sort of a U.N. in space. 
Instruments from 13 or more countries are slated for this mission that
is supposed to launch in 1995 on a Proton launch vehicle.  It is an
astronomical mission.  Our instrument is an array of eight, one-meter
long telescopes with 25 cm diameter multi-layer mirrors.  The short of
it is that this mission will never fly regardless of how much money
the West dumps into the program.  The reasons are simple: 
 
	1.  The Russians truly have no money or resources.  Not only is
		the inflation rate killing the science projects (25%
		per month and increasing) but the scientists on the project
		are leaving for jobs in the banking industry or other
		financial institutions since these jobs pay them ten
		times more than their science jobs.  It is clear that
		their scientists have business alternatives that provide
		significant inducements to leave science.  I do not
		anticipate the Russians having enough personnel to finish
		the work on the Spectrum-X-Gamma mission.
 
	2.  Decaying infrastructure.  Their launch facilities are decaying
		to the point of being unusable.  A recent Proton launch
		failure was traced to paint chips from old buildings
		blowing into the rocket fuel supply prior to the fuel
		being loaded into the Proton.  One of the launch facility
		people told me that they could only launch 6 more Protons
		before the facility was no longer able to sustain a
		launch.  And this is not even in Russia anymore so getting
		to use Baikonour (I know - not spelled correctly) or other
		facilities is questionable.  These new countries want
		dollars for using the facilities but the Russians want to
		pay in rubles.  Also, a clean room I inspected that is to
		be used for instrument-spacecraft integration had plants
		growing in it and technicians smoking.  One of the doors
		was open to the outside.
 
	3.  The companies that are being used to build space-qualified
		hardware are pretty useless.  One facility I visited has 5000
		employees which, at any given time, only 10 are working.
		One of the components that is being built for Spectrum-X
		is a graphite structure that is being assembled in an area
		that has a leaking room and is exposed to the outside.  This
		structure will never cease outgassing in space.
 
	I could go on with a longer list of problems that could make
the Russian space program a negative assest for NASA.  The money NASA
is putting up for Spectrum-X-Gamma is money being used by the Russians
to fund other efforts (and not necessarily scientific).  I always
believed that U.S-Russian space cooperation was a necessary condition
for the future of space exploration.  The Russian scientists are very
intelligent and creative. However, given the current environment there
and given my experiences, I have to ask the following question:  Is
money given to the Russians for cooperative space work a waste of
time?  Is the Russian space program of any use to us at all?  Will
Russian participation in our space program be a detriment? 
 
	Having read this newsgroup, it seems that people tend to
believe that Russian involvement is a great thing, a positive step
forward.  In principle I agree but after having spent time there, it
is not clear we should put our already tight resources into Russia.  I
know that this message will not be well-received by most of you but if
this message generates thoughtful discussions on the usefulness of the
Russian space program, I am willing to endure the slings and arrows. 
 
	One request, please do not reply to me personally but to this
newsgroup.  I get over 200 email messages a day just on my own
projects and I do not need more! 
 
=============================================================================
 
					Dr. Timothy E. Carone
					Experimental Astrophysics Group
					Space Sciences Laboratory
					University of California
					Berkeley, California  94720
 
					(510) 643-8164
					[email protected]
 
=============================================================================

Article: 3829
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.tw.space
Subject: Russia Said Planning to Build New Cosmodrome
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 6:50:23 PST
 
	 MOSCOW (Reuter) - Russia plans to build a major new
cosmodrome in the Far East by the year 2000 to ensure the independence
of its space program, the country's space forces commander told
Itar-Tass news agency Thursday. 

	 The announcement is a clear sign the Russia armed forces have
given up hope of a permanent deal with Kazakhstan over the use of the
former Soviet Union's main cosmodrome at Baikonur, buried deep in the
Kazakh steppe. 

	 ``The interests of the country's defense capability and
security cannot be made dependent on the policy of another country,
even if it is a friendly Commonwealth member country,'' Colonel
General Vladimir Ivanov told Tass. 

	 The Russian space forces have traditionally run Baikonur,
used for both military and civilian launches, but Kazakhstan -- like
Russia, a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States -- is
gradually assuming more control over the cosmodrome. 

	 Ivanov said the new base at the town of Svobodny, near the
Chinese border, would be able to launch manned rockets, which is of
crucial importance to Moscow. 

	 Russia hopes to benefit from the end of the Cold War by
capturing part of the lucrative international commercial satellite
launch market but cannot do so if the future of Baikonur is in doubt. 

	 The only cosmodrome on Russian territory is at Plesetsk in
the far north but it cannot launch manned space flights. 

FWIW, Svobodny (spelled with two y's on the end on the map I consulted) is
located at roughly 128E longitude by 53N latitude.  I could not find Baikonur on
the map to compare the two latitudes, but they are at least comparable.

Burns

From: [email protected] (AP)
Subject: Fire Levels Russia Space Plant
Copyright: 1994 by The Associated Press, R
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 7:50:21 PST

	MOSCOW (AP) -- Fire destroyed a control facility at the Baikonur
space center in Kazakhstan, but experts said Tuesday that launches
would not be affected.
	The fire on Baikonur's launch pad No. 2 did about $1.75 million
damage, the Interfax news agency reported. No injuries were
reported, and the cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
	The fire at the former Soviet Union's main space launch center
occurred last week but was not made public until Tuesday.
	The local fire brigade had no water and help was delayed by a
snowstorm, Interfax reported from the nearby town of Leninsk. The
fire began at an assembly and testing facility next to the launch
pad and spread to a nearby military headquarters.
	The most serious loss was the telemetric facility, which picks
up data from devices mounted on a spacecraft as it is prepared for
launching.
	The launch of a spacecraft carrying supplies to Russia's
orbiting space station will take place Thursday as planned, experts
told Interfax.
	Baikonur has been at the center of a dispute between Russia and
Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
The space center is in Kazakhstan, but Russia uses it and supplies
the money and service teams.
	Kazakhstan wants to negotiate a 30-year lease of Baikonur and is
demanding billions of dollars in rent.
	Baikonur experts, meanwhile, complain of inadequate financing
and say maintenance at the aging facility has been threatened. They
have warned both governments that the cash shortage could lead to a
disaster.

Article: 7968
From: [email protected] (Reuter/Janet Guttsman)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.eastern
Subject: Russia Examines Site for Proposed New Cosmodrome
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 1:50:16 PST
 
	 MOSCOW (Reuter) - A Russian military commission has started
to assess the possibility of building a new cosmodrome near the
Chinese border, some 3,700 miles from Moscow, officials said Wednesday.

	 The new launch site, on an unused strategic missiles launch
site at the once top-secret town of Svobodny-18, would replace
the ageing Baikonur site in Kazakhstan and create jobs for 3,000
people, the officials said.

	 But funds are not yet available and environmentalists are
already complaining about the plans.

	 ``Russia can only pursue a national space program if it has
its own cosmodrome,'' a senior official of Russia's military
space forces said in a telephone interview.

	 ``This commission includes experts in manned rocket
technologies who must assess the possibility of launching Proton
rockets from there.''

	 The heavy Proton rockets, currently launched from Baikonur,
are used to send manned missions to orbital space stations and
to launch heavy satellites.

	 Officials have declined to give the likely cost of the
project, but they admit that building two launch pads and other
buildings will cost several billion dollars.

	 Talk of a new cosmodrome indicates that Russia is less
optimistic about securing a deal for the joint management of
Baikonur. Russia and Kazakhstan have been wrangling for months
over how the cosmodrome there should be run and managed.

	 A new round of talks started in the Kazakh capital Alma-Ata
last week, but no agreements have yet been sealed.

	 Troubles at Baikonur were exacerbated by a fire last week
which damaged five rooms at a rocket assembly and testing unit,
Itar-Tass news agency said.

	 The Russian space forces press office told Tass conditions
at Baikonur were difficult. Russia and Kazakhstan's failure to
agree how to finance the cosmodrome meant supplies of
fire-fighting material and other equipment had been suspended.

	 Access to the base had been made difficult because of recent
heavy snow and an acute water shortage caused extra problems for
fire-fighters, the press office said.

	 Colonel General Vladimir Ivanov, commander of the Russian
space forces, told Russian newspapers Tuesday that agreement to
build a new cosmodrome at Svobodny could be signed this month
and the launch site could be built within two years.

	 Other officials said this was not realistic.

	 The only cosmodrome on Russian territory is at Plesetsk in
the far north, but it cannot launch manned space flights.

	 The Russian space forces have traditionally run Baikonur,
but Kazakhstan, which wants to privatize the site, is gradually
assuming more control.

	 Moscow hopes to lease the cosmodrome for 30 years and link
payment to Kazakhstan's $1.3 billion debt to Moscow but the
newspaper said Alma-Ata was demanding $7 billion in return.

	 Kazakhstan has also demanded that Russia pay compensation
for ecological damage caused by the base.

Article: 8129
From: [email protected] (Reuter/Charles Aldinger)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.asia,clari.news.top.world
Subject: Pentagon Chief on Landmark Soviet Spaceport Visit
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 14:10:06 PST
 
	 BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Reuter) - On an
unprecedented visit, U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry raised
a glass of chilled vodka Sunday and toasted this old Soviet
space center as a symbol of East-West friendship.

	 Perry, on a tour of former Soviet countries to improve ties
after the Cold War, became the first American defense chief to
visit the isolated rocket launch complex on an icy, windswept
plain in Central Asia.

	 After climbing a steel support tower embracing a 150-foot
Russian rocket awaiting launch and sliding on the frozen floor
of a hangar for the world's biggest launch motor, he marveled at
how the world had changed so quickly.

	 ``Ten years ago, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were facing
each other like two men holding loaded guns and pointing them at
each others' heads,'' Perry told Russian and Kazakh army
generals in a toast at a banquet in his honor.

	 ``This was the center of missile development in Russia which
symbolized a race that could have ended in catastrophe for both
our countries and, indeed, the whole world. Now, this symbolizes
the space cooperation between the two countries.''

	 But Perry also told reporters flying with him to Ukraine
later Sunday that the 40-year-old launch complex was much too
big and was draining money from Russia's economy.

	 ``It is two or three times as large as it needs to be. An
amazing technology achievement, but it is not economically sound
today,'' he said. ``They have got a very, very difficult problem
of scaling down what they have.''

	 Russia and Kazakhstan are negotiating the possible lease by
Moscow of Baikonur, which sent Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into
space and test-launched dozens of long-range nuclear missiles.

	 Moscow still regularly launches military satellites from
several launch pads at the complex and is courting U.S. and other 
firms to launch commercial satellites here using Russian rockets.

	 ``We have an interest in launching vehicles into space, both
in medium altitude and, particularly, communications satellites
to go to synchronous (high) altitudes,'' Perry told reporters as
Russian Colonel General Vladimir Ivanov stood by.

	 Ivanov, chief of Russia's rocket forces and military space
effort, presented Perry with a silver medal commemorating
Gagarin's space launch three decades ago.

	 ``It will be launched at 9:59 a.m. on March 22,'' Ivanov
boasted to Perry as they stood by the Soyuz rocket which will carry 
supplies into space for Russia's long-orbiting Mir space station.

	 ``I am impressed,'' replied Perry, noting that two American
astronauts are now training in Russia to ride into space on a
Russian rocket from Baikonur next year.

	 Both Ivanov and Kazakh Defense Minister Sagadat
Nurmagambetov toasted the United States as a new friend of their
countries. Ivanov confirmed a statement to Perry  Saturday by
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev that he expected
agreement soon on leasing the complex to Russia.

	 ``They (the Russians) make good rockets,'' said Nurmagambetov.

	 Perry, who began his weeklong trip in Moscow, flew here from
the Kazakh capital Alma-Ata on Sunday on Kazakh military aircraft with
Pentagon officials and reporters. After a three-hour visit he departed
for Kiev. 

	 Before he left, Perry handled the traditional carving of a
roasted sheep's head put before him as the honored guest of the
Baikonur banquet. With a grin, he sawed off an ear and served it to
Nurmagambetov. 

Article: 8168
From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.western
Subject: Perry Sees Baikonur Center
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 16:30:11 PST
 
	BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- Kazakhstan opened the gates of
the once super-secret Baikonur space center Sunday, for the first time
giving a U.S. defense secretary a close-up look at Russian rocketry. 

	Defense Secretary William Perry saw a Soyuz space rocket in
preparation for an unmanned mission to Russia's Mir space station,
scheduled to begin Tuesday. Then he toured the vast hangar that holds
the former Soviet Union's grounded space shuttle rockets. 

	Set on the barren plains of western Kazakhstan, the Baikonur
cosmodrome is spread over nearly 7,000 square kilometers. It was the
home of the Soviet space program and the departure point of Yuri
Gagarin's historic earth-orbiting mission 33 years ago. 

	The place where the space race began and the arms race
intensified now promises to become a center of cooperation, Perry said. 

	``Nowhere could be more appropriate to symbolize the change
than Baikonur,'' Perry said in a luncheon toast to his Kazakh and
Russian hosts. ``This was the center of missile development in Russia,
which symbolized a race that could have ended in catastrophe.'' 

	During the Cold War, Perry said, ``the United States and the
Soviet Union were facing each other as two men holding guns pointed at
each other's heads. This we called nuclear deterrent.'' All the while,
he said, ``we were shouting insults at each other.'' 

	Perry, who became a millionaire in defense contracting, served
early in his career as a private contractor to the U.S. intelligence
community, helping gather information about Baikonur during the late 1950s. 

	Col. Gen. Vladimir Ivanov, commander of Russian military space
forces, said in his toast, ``We find ourselves in the company of
friends and colleagues.'' 

	Despite the warm words, Baikonur remains a missile testing
ground and launch site for Russian spy satellites.  Russia and
Kazakhstan are disputing control of the base.  Now part of Kazakhstan,
a former Soviet republic, Baikonur is still run by Russian soldiers
and scientists. 

	The visit was a study in contrasts.  Perry and his entourage
arrived in two small Kazakh military planes because the runway in the
nearby city of Leninsk was too short to handle his Boeing-707. 

	The group strolled over a narrow, rotted road to reach the
Soyuz launch site -- the same pad used for Gagarin's flight. 

	Walking around the base of the Soyuz rocket, two U.S. officials 
accompanying Perry marveled at the quality of Russian workmanship. 

	Workers in fur hats and woolen coats, missing the lab-coat
look of NASA rocket engineers, buzzed around a 15-story craft.  Others
gathered on the framework above to peer down at Perry.  Already this
year, these workers have put eight Russian rockets aloft. 

	The shuttle hangar displayed the massive components of the
defunct Energia rocket, the world's most powerful.  A U.S. expert,
speaking on condition of anonymity, called the Energia program
``dead in the water'' for lack of funds.

	``That's as high as that rocket's going to get off the ground,''
the official said.

	There were signs of lean times everywhere.

	The group skidded over an icy floor as water dripped from a
leaky roof in the unheated hangar.  At one point, a fluffy cat started
in front of group and hid under a rocket funnel. 

	Perry termed the visit a ``business trip,'' noting that some U.S. 
firms have already contracted with Russia to send payloads into space. 

	Rocket assembly manager Grigory Sunis said Russia wants to
revive the Energia, noting it can carry a whopping 105 tons of payload
into a low Earth orbit. 

	Late Sunday night, Perry traveled to Kiev, the capital of
Ukraine, for two days of talks with top officials on arms control and
defense conversion.  Perry visited Moscow earlier and will wind up the
week-long trip in Belarus on Wednesday. 

	Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan are the three former Soviet
republics that still retain parts of the ex-Soviet nuclear arsenal.
They have agreed in principle to surrender the warheads to Russia but
negotiations on the issue are continuing. 


Article: 8159
From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.tw.nuclear
Subject: Perry Signs Ukraine Nuke Pact
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 10:00:13 PST
 
	KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- The United States Monday provided Ukraine
with an additional incentive to eliminate nuclear weapons, signing
an agreement providing the former Soviet republic with $50 million
to destroy silos for its missiles.

	The money is in addition to the $135 million the Clinton
administration decided earlier this year to give Ukraine to remove
its nuclear weapons. The new money is for eliminating the silos for
46 SS-24 missiles. Each SS-24 can carry 10 nuclear warheads.

	As Perry signed the agreement, Ukraine moved two shipments
totaling 120 warheads to Russia. Once there, the warheads are to be
deactivated and dismantled.

	``The first two trainloads of warheads have already departed
Ukraine and gone to Russia for dismantlement,'' Perry said following a 
meeting with Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk.

	Ukrainian officials Monday confirmed that the second shipment of
60 warheads has been sent to Russia for dismantling.

	Eager to prevent any delay in the shipment of nuclear weapons to
Russia for dismantling, Perry planned an extraordinary visit
Tuesday to two Ukrainian nuclear testing and launch facilities.

	``This will be an unprecedented trip for the secretary of
defense of the United States to go to these two very important
sites,'' Perry said upon arrival late Sunday night from Kazakhstan,
where he visited the once-top secret Baikonur space center.

	In January, Ukraine, the United States and Russia signed a
document committing to, but not guaranteeing, the elimination of
nuclear weapons from Ukraine.

	Perry hopes to accomplish that Tuesday at Ukraine's Tervomaysk
base, where the warheads are being loaded onto trains to shipment to Russia.

	The defense secretary told reporters he wanted to observe the
operation to get at least a ``lukewarm feeling'' of confidence that
Ukraine is indeed eliminating the weapons.

	In a last-minute addition to the agenda, Perry on Tuesday will
visit another missile facility at Dnipropetrovsk, where missiles
and space launch vehicles are manufactured.

	With the sun glinting on fresh snow in this ancient capital,
high-stepping soldiers of the Ukrainian army greeted Perry on his
arrival Monday outside the czarist-era Defense Ministry building.

	Then Perry met for more than a hour with his counterpart,
Defense Minister Vitaly Radetsky. After signing the grant
agreement, Radetsky said the U.S. aid comes at a critical time.

	``We've just begun to build up our independent state and our
armed forces,'' Radetsky said. ``It's no secret that the process is
extremely complicated.'' Given Ukraine's goal of eliminating its
nuclear weapons, he added, ``it is of great importance that the
development of our armed forces is secured.''

	Radetsky did not comment directly on the disposition of the
second shipment of warheads but noted that with U.S. and Russian
assistance, ``Ukraine has found a way to break down the nuclear deadlock.''

	Ukraine will have 1,684 nuclear warheads after the removal and
shipment of the 120 from the SS-24s, according to both a White
House official and an independent review by the Washington-based
Arms Control Association.

	Other initiatives ready for action by Perry and his Ukrainian
counterpart include:

	-- $10 million in U.S. aid to help Ukraine account for its
enriched nuclear weapons material and to establish an
export-control program to keep elements of weapons of mass
destruction from being sold to other countries.

	-- $40 million in aid for a business partnership plan to allow
U.S. companies to team up with Ukrainian weapons makers on civilian
projects and to purchase housing for retired military officers.

	-- Establishing an economic stability and reform commission with
U.S. and Ukrainian representatives.

	Perry visited Moscow earlier and will wind up his week-long trip
in Belarus on Wednesday. Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the three
republics other than Russia that retain parts of the former Soviet
nuclear arsenal, have all agreed in principle to turn their
warheads over to Russia.

Article: 8290
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.news.gov.usa
Subject: Ukraine Excluded from U.S. Cooperation on Rockets
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 12:30:12 PST
 
	 KIEV, Ukraine (Reuter) - The space agencies of Ukraine and
the United States agreed Wednesday to boost cooperation in space, but
excluded contacts on rocket construction sought by Kiev, Interfax
Ukraine news agency reported. 

	 Volodymyr Gorbulin, head of Ukraine's space agency, said the
U.S. space agency had criticized Ukraine's failure to join a 26-nation 
agreement on non-proliferation of advanced rocket technology.

	 Interfax said the two sides signed a declaration on studying
the possibilities of cooperation in research, physics, biology
in space, and Earth-solar links.

	 Gorbulin said both sides discussed using two Ukrainian
research ships inherited from the Soviet space program.

	 Ukrainian space officials had earlier expressed
disappointment at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's refusal to discuss rocket construction -- seen
as the sole way to save Ukraine's faltering aeronautics industry.

	 Most of the former Soviet Union's space rockets were
produced in Ukraine.

	 Gorbulin last week said Ukraine's economic collapse had
prompted 3,000 aerospace specialists to seek other jobs.

	 Ukraine still manufactures the powerful Zenit launcher at
the Pivdenmash plant in Dnipropetrovsk, visited Tuesday by
Defense Secretary William Perry.

	 But a lack of appropriate legislation has prevented it from
starting up a viable international business.

               

Article: 8371
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia,clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.news.hot.ussr
Subject: China, Russia in pact for broad space cooperation
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 2:40:08 PST
 
	 BEIJING, March 26 (Reuter) - China and Russia have signed a
pact that officials said paved the way for broad cooperation in space
and raised the prospect of joint projects at a new Siberian space
centre near China. 

	 The protocol was signed on Friday in Moscow by Chinese space
official Wang Liheng and Russian space administration director U. Koptev, 
China's official Xinhua news agency reported from the Russian capital. 

	 ``The document is a frame agreement to lay a basis for
extensive Sino-Russian space cooperation,'' Koptev said. 

	 ``Under the protocol, Russia and China will cooperate in
virtually all fields of space science, including communication
satellite, satellite television broadcast and space technology
application.'' 

	 Koptev said the pact would create favourable conditions for
both sides to exploit a new space centre that Russia plans to build in
its far east just 100 km (60 miles) from China. 

	 Details of the space centre were not disclosed.

	 Wang, who arrived on Monday for one-week visit, said both
sides agreed to set up a 14-member working panel to map out details of
the cooperative scheme. 

Article: 8411
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.eastern
Subject: Russia leasing Baikonur space centre to Kazakhstan
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 7:20:07 PST
 
	 MOSCOW, March 28 (Reuter) - Russia signed an agreement with
Kazakhstan on Monday to rent the Baikonur space centre, heart of
the old Soviet space programme, for 20 years at an annual cost
of $115 million, Itar-Tass news agency said.

	 The deal, allowing an extension for a further 10 years, was
signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Kazakhstan leader
Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Kremlin. The Baikonur centre, in
north Kazakhstan, had been a source of great concern for the
Russian space industry since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Article: 8417
From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.world.asia
Subject: Russian Launch Site Leased
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 10:31:12 PST
 
	MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia agreed Monday to lease the Baikonur space
launch site in Kazakhstan for 20 years, settling a longstanding
dispute, Russian news services reported.

	The agreement was one of 23 signed by Presidents Boris Yeltsin
of Russia and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan at the Kremlin on
political, military and economic cooperation. Among other
agreements, they decided Moscow would have control of Kazakhstan's
nuclear arsenal until it is dismantled.

	The two former Soviet republics had been arguing about
conditions for using Baikonur, the launch site for all manned space
flights, since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

	Under the agreement reached Monday, Russia will pay Kazakhstan
$115 million annually for 20 years, with an option to lease the
cosmodrome for an additional 10 years. Kazakhstan had been holding
out for $150 million a year, Interfax said.

	Russian media reports said earlier this month that Moscow was
considering plans to build an alternative cosmodrome in the Russian
Far East. It was not immediately clear whether Monday's agreement
would put an end to these plans.

	At the signing ceremony, Yeltsin hailed Nazarbayev's visit to
Russia as ``very important.'' The Kazakh leader said his visit
``sweeps away all talk and rumors about Russia's imperial activity,''
ITAR-Tass said. 

	The two sides agreed that Yeltsin will have operational control
over Kazakhstan's nuclear weapons until Kazakhstan surrenders all
its former Soviet warheads to Moscow for dismantling.

	The leaders also signed agreements on military cooperation and
a treaty on the civil and legal status of Kazakh citizens living in
Russia and ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan. 

Article: 8921
From: [email protected] (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.tw.space
Subject: Russian Space Day Is Gloomy
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 94 18:30:04 PDT
 
	MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia marked Space Day on Tuesday, but signs
abounded of trouble in the space program on what once was a day of
national pride.

	In Gorky Park, children clambered over a space shuttle that
never got off the ground.

	Across town, the shuttle's designers said they planned to go
commercial and sell shares abroad in a new Russian space company
because government financing has dried up.

	Senior researcher Nikolai Kardashev, speaking at the Russian
Academy of Sciences, warned that Moscow's progress in space exploration 
was fast slipping away.

	``All the most important branches of cosmonautics receive meager
funds,'' said Kardashev. ``As a result, Russia may soon lose its
status of a great space power, which will be irreparable.''

	The gloomy mood contrasted with Soviet times, when April 12 was
a day to celebrate national achievements.  On that day in 1961, Yuri
Gagarin became the first man in space.

	Gagarin died in 1968 in a jet trainer crash, but the space race
continued into the 1980s.  The Russians launched the Mir orbiting
station in 1986 and built their own space shuttle, the Buran.

	The race proved too heavy a burden.  By 1990, money for space
programs was drastically reduced.  The Soviet disintegration a year
later nearly dealt the programs a death blow.

	The key launching site at Baikonur suddenly became part of
independent Kazakhstan.  Many space plants were left behind in
Ukraine.  Russia's cosmonaut team declined from 100 to 40 people.

	Now, Russia is increasingly cooperating with the West.

	American astronaut Norman Thagard will blast into space aboard
a Russian rocket next March and spend three months on the Mir with a
Russian crew.  A U.S. shuttle will bring a new Russian crew to the
station and take Thagard back to Earth in June 1995.

	Moscow also launched a space probe last month with Ukraine,
Germany, France, and other foreign partners.  And it agreed to rent
the Baikonur cosmodrome from Kazakhstan.

	But it continues to have mixed success in other ventures, as the
grounded Buran shuttle reminds visitors to Gorky Park in central Moscow.

	One of the Buran prototypes is the centerpiece in an
entertainment center opening this week with a restaurant and flight
simulators.  Buran was scrapped after its only unmanned test flight
in 1988.

	At Molniya complex in northwestern Moscow that was established
in 1976 to construct Buran, Buran labs and shops once crowded with
8,500 employees stand idle and equipment rusts in the courtyards.

	Nearly half the workers are gone, but the remainder now hope to
realize a project called MAKS that involves small shuttles launched
from the giant An-225 Mriya transport plane to carry cargo into space.

	Molniya officials say MAKS transportation will be 10 times
cheaper than any current space cargo carriers.  But the
cash-strapped government figures it could take up to 10 years to
develop the MAKS shuttles, and can't afford such a program.

	To attract the necessary investment, Molniya announced plans
Tuesday to form a commercial company, the Russian Aviation-Cosmic
Co., with mixed foreign and Russian capital.

	Molniya itself will remain in state hands.

Article: 4011
From: [email protected] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.russia,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.tw.space
Subject: Russia Plans Unmanned Space Launches This Month
Date: Thu, 5 May 94 3:10:22 PDT
 
	 MOSCOW (Reuter) - Russia plans a series of unmanned space
launches to its orbiting space station Mir in May before a
manned launch next month with a cosmonaut from neighboring
Kazakhstan, a Russian Military Space Forces (MSF) official said.

	 The official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters
Thursday that MSF would launch one Progress cargo spacecraft on
May 18 to deliver scientific equipment, food and water to Mir.

	 Next would be a communications satellite, Gorizont, in a
joint program with the U.S. company Rimsat.

	 This launch -- the second of a series of three Gorizont and
four Express satellites before March 1996 -- was planned for
between May 20 and 25, the official said.

	 The deal costs $156 million. The Russian partners are the
Khrunichev Space Centre and the Krasnoyarsk space plant in Siberia.

	 MSF is also preparing two Kosmos military satellites for
launch at the end of May. Some 2,280 Kosmos satellites have gone
into orbit since the first one was launched in the former Soviet
Union in 1962.

	 Russia's and Kazakhstan's jointly-manned space flight is
planned for June, the official said.

	 ``(Russia's) Major Yuri Malenchenko and Kazakh
Lieutenant-Colonel Talgat Musabayev are due to set off on June
20 from Baikonur cosmodrome and spent 35 days in orbit,'' he
said. Malenchenko is 33, Musabayev 43.

	 It will be the 16th manned space expedition to the Mir
orbital station, which is due to end its service life next year.

	 Musabayev is only the second Kazakh cosmonaut to go into
space, although the entire Soviet space program is based in what
is now Kazakh territory. Russia inherited the program after the
Soviet collapse and now rents the Baikonur complex.

	 In 1991, when the program was still in Soviet hands,
Kazakhstan's Takhtar Aubakirov made a nine-day space flight to
Mir with Russian colleague Alexander Volkov and an Austrian
cosmonaut. Aubakirov now heads the Kazakh Space Agency.

Article: 4020
From: [email protected] (Reuter/Ralph Boulton)
Newsgroups: clari.news.features,clari.world.europe.russia,clari.world.top
Subject: Russians Offer New Line in Weightless ``Space Tourism''
Date: Mon, 9 May 94 6:30:05 PDT
 
	 MOSCOW (Reuter) - Walking on the ceiling, floating serenely
in mid-air and spinning madly like a top above the clouds had
all seemed the stuff of dreams or boys' adventure magazines.

	 ``It was a feeling of peace and tranquillity -- like my mind
had left my body. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced
before,'' said New Jersey diamond dealer Tom Colacino, stepping
just a little daintily from a Russian Ilyushin aircraft.

	 ``It was very interesting ... and exciting to fly like a
bird,'' laughed Japanese travel agency owner Hideo Sumada.

	 For the last 90 minutes Sumada and Colacino had been pushing
back frontiers along with about a dozen others -- tourists,
travel agents and journalists -- as forerunners, perhaps, of a
bold new generation of ``space tourists.''

	 The Ilyushin-76 transporter is one of three adapted by
Russia's Space Agency to train cosmonauts in the weightless
conditions they will otherwise encounter only in orbit.
Cosmonauts use it to practice for space walks, carrying out
tricky repairs and experiments outside the Mir station.

	 However, its zero-gravity chamber, one of only five in the
world, is now open to frustrated would-be spacemen with a little
financial weight -- $4,000 in fact.

	 ``I'd been fascinated by space and the idea of
weightlessness since I was a child,'' said Colacino.

	 The ``joy-rides'' are marketed in the West by a
Florida-based company, which began last year by selling flights
on Russian military aircraft and rides in tanks.

	 The zero-gravity aircraft is like no other.

	 The inside opens out like a rectangular dance studio to the
dozen or so guests stepping aboard. The floor is padded with
foam-rubber mattresses and rails essential to any weightless
establishment run along the walls.

	 After a medical check and briefing from Space Agency
official Viktor Rhein, the plane leaves Zhukovka airfield and
climbs above the fields and forests around Moscow.

	 A buzzer sounds and a voice crackles over a loudspeaker:

	``Attention. Special regime begins now!'' Passengers sitting on
the floor with their backs against the wall are pressed back by
a force twice that of normal gravity.

	 The aircraft powers hard to 30,000 feet, then turns and
pitches into a steep dive.

	 Passengers are oblivious to all this. Though the view from
the cockpit tells a different story, to those in the closed
chamber the aircraft appears to be flying on a level plane.

	 As the dive begins, double gravity gives way very suddenly
to a feeling of complete weightlessness.

	 A dozen bodies twitch upwards.

	 Some grip the bar as their feet rise towards the heavens,
the more intrepid cartwheel in space to the opposite wall or
bound across the ceiling in the slow-motion space-walk known to
the average earthling only through film.

	 Space Agency minders, present to ensure safety and some
order among their charges, fling a succession of willing
volunteers from one end of the chamber to the other.

	 Fantasies are acted out with little or no shame. One
American thrusts his arms forward and sails like Superman from
one end of the chamber to the other.

	 A Japanese sails by, laughs, bounces with a gasp off the
ceiling and drifts starfish-like towards the floor. His fellow
countryman is spun wildly like a top by a minder.

	 Twenty-eight seconds of weightlessness pass in a moment and
spinning bodies settle slowly, like a cloud of awkward locusts.
Minders yank down anyone who looks in danger of being caught
aloft when gravity reclaims them.

	 The Ilyushin, having dived 10,000 feet in 25 seconds,
straightens out and the double-gravity sets in again for a few
uneasy seconds until it levels completely.

	 The aircraft repeats its parabolic flight pattern 14 times,
each time opening a 25-30 second window of weightlessness.

	 The Ilyushin flights give Russia's Space Agency, for all its
problems still arguably the world's most advanced, the
opportunity to earn a small amount of money at a time when
programs are being wound down and help keep the Ilyushins flying
until better times return.

	 But it also opens the way for future, more ``serious'' and
lucrative industrial enterprises.

	 Financiers are already looking at the possibility of using
the chamber for experiments in micro-electronics and metals that
need zero-gravity -- a cheap alternative to orbital launches.

	 Meanwhile, for those with the money, it can fulfil a few
fantasies and excite more. ``If ever the Americans or the
Russians give over their shuttles to commercial flights, I'd be
there at the front of the line,'' said Colacino.

Article: 2572
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to James Oberg.
Date: 8 Jun 1994 00:34:01 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
 STATEMENT PREPARED FOR THE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE
 HEARINGS OF OCTOBER 5-6, 1993 ON US-RUSSIAN COOPERATION
 BY JAMES OBERG, SPACE ENGINEER AND AUTHOR, HOUSTON, TEXAS
 
 Thank you for inviting me to submit this written statement for your
hearings. I regret that I was unable to attend them personally, as
you invited me to do. I hope to be able to do so in the future, and I
am eager to support your subcommittee's work in any role you see fit.
 
 I am the author of two recent controversial articles on the status
of the Russian "Baikonur Cosmodrome", which appeared in the Wall
Street Journal (September 2, 1993) and in Space News (September 20,
1993). Beyond that, I am the author of ten books and more than five
hundred magazine articles on various themes associated with space
activities, and I am recognized as one of the world's leading experts
on Soviet/Russian space activities. I have appeared on all major
television news programs as a commentator on aerospace issues, I was
recently selected as the first foreign member of the new Russian
Academy of Cosmonautics, and I was the on-screen guide of the PBS
NOVA mini-series on Soviet space, "The Russian Right Stuff", which
aired in 1991.
 
 My assessments and evaluations of the Soviet/Russian space program
have been conducted throughout my life as a personal activity, not
associated with any university, corporation, or government or private
organization. This independence has allowed me to reach my
conclusions solely based on the evidence at hand and not based on the
political or ideological applicability and implications of such
results. Over the past twenty years my record of insights and
forecasts of Soviet/Russian space activities has been better than
that of groups with their own agendas. 
 
 Long before it was politically correct, I was advocating closer
cooperation between the US and the then-Soviet space program. In the
March 1982 issue of OMNI  ("Hitch Up to a Red Star") I described a
docking between an American space shuttle and a Russian space
station, and my 1984 book The New Race for Space included an
illustration of how it could be done, exactly as NASA now plans to do
it in 1995. Elaborations on this theme appeared in Aerospace America
(June 1989), in The Christian Science Monitor (October 2, 1989), in
my 10-page paper ("A Near-Term Incremental Strategy for US/USSR
Manned Spaceflight Cooperation") submitted to the Augustine
Commission in October 1990, again in OMNI (Russian Lessons: Can the
Soviets teach NASA how to build a better space station?") in December
1990, and in Space News on October 14, 1991, in my satirical put-down
of all the reasons being made against cooperation ("The 20 Best
Reasons NASA Never Will Use Russian Space Hardware").
 
 Consequently, I have been gratified to see the growth of exactly
these policies which I had long advocated, often alone, and
occasionally under criticism and condemnation. Strategies of
information exchange, crew exchanges, equipment exchanges, and
further steps are consistent with advice I offered many, many years
ago. I believe this strategy is correct.
 
Article: 2573
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: An Open Letter to James Oberg.
Date: 8 Jun 1994 00:35:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
continued...
 
 My current dispute with contemporary US Government policy deals with
a few specific program assumptions, which I believe are poorly based.
If the contemporary plans go forward unaltered, I fear that they will
fail, and in failing, they will destroy the chance for more
substantive, solid joint efforts. The political and technological
consequences of such failure may be costly to the United States, to
Russia, and to the entire world. But they are avoidable, if realism
overcomes misconceptions. Such is my wish.
 
 In particular, I have reached the conclusion that Russia's old
Baikonur Cosmodrome is mortally wounded and would be an unreliable
basis on which to plan future joint activities. Official reports
commissioned by the White House, such as the recent ANSER 6-page memo
quoted in Space News (September 27, 1993), are in my evaluation naive
and superficial and are evidently intended to provide the illusion of
evidence to support positions already adopted. A detailed,
devastating critique of the many checkable facts in the ANSER report
is attached. It and similar reports from organizations which desire
to make profits from selling promises of Baikonur-based services are
in my opinion undeserving of credibility. I reached this judgment
even after the upbeat report I published in the October 1990 OMNI,
"Inside Baikonur", when I hoped it would survive.
 
 The torment of the people of Baikonur -- of the workers and of 
their families -- is an inhuman cornerstone for any noble effort to
integrate the space programs of the United States and Russia. Even
assuming that the people there could continue to function under such
harsh conditions, no noble ends justify such a cruel means. But
bitter experience teaches us that people under stress and privation,
no matter how well they are motivated, are incapable of safely
operating highly technical systems over an extended period of time.
Something's got to give. Better it be the enthusiastic illusions of
uninformed officials than the lives of Baikonur's dedicated and
long-suffering workers and their families.
 

Article: 2626
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: Auditing Baikonur (was Re: An Open Letter to James Oberg.)
Date: 11 Jun 1994 11:08:03 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
The problem with existing gov't reports on Baikonur is that the only
one released so far ("ANSER report") is demonstrably incompetent and
was later denounced as superficial and dilettantish by the cosmodrome
commander himself. A number of other gov't reports allegedly exist,
and are cited by program supporters as 'proof', by NASA and USAF
visitors, but none of them has been released (I wonder why, if the
real data supports current policies?). 
 
A gaggle of congresspersons and staff drove through the cosmodrome for
a few hours about six months ago and did issue a fairly good report,
which I've seen. My response to it follows. 
 
Private tourist groups keep going there, too. They seem to see
different things than the gov't groups see. Again, I wonder why.
 
It remains a puzzlement. Further inputs and inquiries are definitely
to be appreciated.
 
Jim Oberg

Article: 2627
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: Auditing Baikonur (was Re: An Open Letter to James Oberg.)
Date: 11 Jun 1994 11:09:04 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
Part 1 of 2
 
Comments on the Brown congressional report on Baikonur.
James Oberg // 713-337-2838 // e-mail [email protected] // Mar 31
 
After a brief visit by a congressional delegation last December, a
formal report on conditions at the Baikonur Cosmodrome has just been
released. The three main points on the reliability of the cosmodrome
are well taken and show careful analysis. But the following caveats
must be made.
 
1. "The cosmodrome itself is a fully capable facility with no
evidence of neglect or deterioration". This observation is consistent
with the continuing reliable launchings from the cosmodrome. However,
at issue should be the predicted remaining lifetime of various
launch-support systems in the face of both regular and accidental
wear, when replacement equipment has not been provided for years.
Formerly redundent and very robust systems can slowly degenerate into
fragile "single-string" no-fault tolerant systems without any visible
indication of loss of capability until total loss occurs. Cutbacks in
safety and maintenance lead to more frequent and more serious
peripheral accidents such as toxic fuel spills and fires (the recent
fire in the assembly building near a Progress spacecraft was only the
latest and not even the greatest of a series of fires). The collapse
of a space launch support complex is not a linear, graceful decay, it
is a "knee of the curve" sudden "catastrophe" (in mathematical
terminology). How close each of the still-operational Baikonur launch
 pads is to such a non-recoverable catastrophe cannot be determined
by superficial viewing of the pad equipment or by statistical plots
of the launch rates.
 
2. "The surrounding infrastructure is in need of major upgrade".
Despite this report's assertion that there is no direct link between
living conditions of workers and the quality of their workmanship,
every US specialist in industrial safety can explain that connection.
The US would never trust people living like those at Baikonur to
operate an air traffic control system, or a nuclear power plant, or a
military command and control center. The tensions and distractions
are inhumanly oppressive and classically such conditions have been
the root cause of some major Western technological catastrophes. The
workers of Baikonur have already called upon the government for
relief in the form of a temporary moratorium on launchings, and if
the government does not respond to them positively, the workers can
find ways to enact and enforce a moratorium themselves. Sadly, the
Brown report did not address the severe regional environmental
poisoning which has made Baikonur an unhealthy place for space
workers and their families, along with visiting Americans, to live.
 
Article: 2628
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: Auditing Baikonur (was Re: An Open Letter to James Oberg.)
Date: 11 Jun 1994 11:10:02 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
Part 2 of 2
 
3. "A stable political environment requires closer US/Kazakh
relations". This issue may overshadow all technical and demographic
ones in the next several years: Will multi-national Kazakhstan turn
out to be a Central Asian Switzerland or a Central Asian Bosnia?
Currently it is held together by one dominent personality, but
centrifugal forces (particularly the restive Russian majorities in
the northern half of the country) can erupt into bloodshed at any
moment, and the track record of post-Soviet republics is far from
encouraging. Issues of Russian military presence, of launch vehicle
damage compensation, of dual citizenship, of currencies, of
inter-ethnic hatreds, of environmental compensation and cleanup
claims elsewhere in the country (e.g. Semipalatinsk) and of long-term
residency regulations all cannot be papered over with a few simple
treaties and promises of cash transfers. The cost to the United
States of a stable (and ultimately non-nuclear) Kazakhstan already
looks to be many hundreds of millions of dollars per year, based on
recent foreign aid promises, and how much of that should be blamed on
Kazakhstan's long-term stranglehold on the International Space
Station program?  Betting on the immortality of specific individuals
(e.g., today, Nazarbayev) has been a US foreign policy delusion in
the past (e.g., the Shah, Tito), and has cost us dearly. Granting the
government (any government) in Almaty a permanent veto over a twenty
billion dollar American space investment is an invitation to blackmail.
 
In conclusion,  my heretical anxieties about the undependable future
of the Baikonur Cosmodrome are unswayed by these recent studies by
waves of brief visitors. 
 

Article: 2787
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Lack of Safety at Cosmodrome
Organization: Motorola
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:35:43 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
From Flight International, 8-14 June, 1994, p. 23
 
"'Lack of safety' hit Tsyklon launch"
 
A sever reduction in safety standards at the Baiknour cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan may have contributed to the failure of a Tsyklon booster to
launch the Cosmos 2281 satellite... 
 
Lt Gen Alexei Shumlin, Baikonur's commander has blamed the exodus of
personnel and lack of maintenance at the cosmodrome for compromising
safety.  "We have a dire shortage of speciallists for work on the
launch pads and rocket fuelling stations," says Shumilin, whose
workforce has been reduced by half... 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 2813
From: [email protected] (Phillip Clark)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Lack of Safety at Cosmodrome
Date: 21 Jun 1994 19:08:18 GMT
Organization: The Direct Connection
 
A nice idea from Tim Furniss, but after he had filed the Tsyklon
launch failure from Tyuratam (Baikonur) story I told him that (a) only
two stage Tsyklons fly from Tyuratam and the launch failure was of a
THREE stage Tsyklon and (b) the launch was from Plesetsk. 
 
Pity Tim was not able to change his article before it was published ...
 
P S Clark
 

Article: 2847
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
From: [email protected] (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Cronkite Report misleading
Organization: Motorola
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 16:27:40 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
The 6/20 Chronkite Report on Discovery was misleading in several respects.
 
1. He says 100 pilots were training to fly Buran. I don't know who they
were including but over the last 15 years in total its probably more
like 30-40. Anyone counting?
 
2. He implys the vehicle in Gorky park is 'THE' Buran, which most of 
the media also says. Of course this is a structural test article 
and the real flight vehicles are safely in storage.       
 
3. He says Russia launches 100 'commercial' satellites a year on average. 
Total satellites maybe, and in the 1980's, but not for the last few years. 
 
4. He says NASA wants to limit Russian launches and for the Russians
to raise their prices. NASA isn't involved in these political games. 
 
5. He implys NASA launches 12 commercial satellites a year. Again
NASA has nothing to do with commercial satellites anymore. 
 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL

Article: 2851
From: [email protected] (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: Cronkite Report misleading
Date: 22 Jun 1994 21:59:03 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Sender: [email protected]
 
I also noted that the show used footage from the PBS NOVA "Russian
Right Stuff" -- I know, because I was the guy who tore off his shapka
in exaltation during the Soyuz launch, at the very end of the program. 
OK, only small-scale piracy, but no credit to WGBH in Boston was given. 
 
Otherwise, Dennis's comments were right on target.
 
Article: 20292
From: [email protected] (Stephen R. Munday)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: The Cronkite Report/Buran
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 17:48:01 -0600
Organization: NASA-JSC-EG2
 
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Gerald G.
Marfoe) wrote:
 
> Did anybody else watch "The Cronkite Report" on the Discovery Channel
> on Monday night? Apparently, the Russian space shuttle orbiter Buran
> has been sold to some entrepreneurs who are displaying it in
> Moscow's Gorky Park! Walter Cronkite didn't actually say that it was the
> Buran, but I figured that it was either the Buran or an engineering
> mockup. The US isn't the only country with formerly operational/unused
> space technology on display, at least.
 
Someone else has posted that this was a structural test article, not a
flight article.  The orbiter which flew one mission and it's grounded
counterpart are apparently mothballed in a hangar.
 
> In case anyone bothered to listen to Senator Bumpers' self-righteous
> anti-spaceflight dialogue, he seems to have the idea that NASA should
> be running weather satellites, telecommunications and spy satellites!
> Apparently he's totally unaware of the fact that NOAA and DoD have been
> running the nation's weather satellites for the past few decades, 
> private industry has been running telecommunications satellites, and
> the Air Force/DoD and other national security agencies are in charge
> of spy satellites. With people like him deciding the future of our
> space program, it's no wonder that it's so hard to get support for
> single stage rocket technology and other worthwhile space initiatives.
 
Hear, hear!  It must me sad to go through life with the lack of vision or
imagination which Mr. Bumpers displays.  Bumpers stated (paraphrasing),
"Until we solve all of society's problems, going to Mars is CRAZY!" 
Following Mr. Bumpers rationale, we would never venture beyond low Earth
orbit at all.  Thank God he and his visionless cohorts were not at the helm
30 years ago, or we may not have walked the lunar surface.  
 
Regardless of what Bumpers and the unimaginative scientist in the program
(I forget his name) think, space exploration has no point unless we intend
to eventually experience it first hand, i.e., manned exploration and
colonization.  It's hard to believe there are people such as Bumpers that
would never have us emerging from earth's cradle.  Bumpers, Roemer and the
rest are the same type of closed-minded folks that stood on the shore
watching Magellan and Columbus take to the sea, shouting, "You'll fall off
the edge!  You'll be swallowed by giant serpents!"
 
> Here are some rough figures (as near as I can remember) that were 
> presented on The Cronkite Report:
> 
>  NASA Budget (No fiscal year specified - probably 1995) = $14 billion
>  Total Federal Budget = approximately $1.478 trillion
>  Total US Gross National Product = approximately $6.6 trillion
> 
> Dan Goldin was shown saying that the NASA budget is approximately
> "one-quarter of one percent of the national budget"; even if there
> were a "feeding frenzy on Capitol Hill" and the total NASA budget
> got cut, we still couldn't house all the homeless and feed all
> the hungry. 
 
I believe Goldin said NASA's budget is 1/4 of 1% of the U.S. economy,
meaning the GNP you listed.  NASA's budget is just under 1% of the federal
budget, and Space Station represents 1/7 of that--hardly a deficit
reduction opportunity.  In the Cronkite report, author Ray Bradbury pointed
out how minute our investment in space is compared with the cost of our war
effort:  Defense receives nearly twenty times NASA's budget.  Other
comparisons:  Entitlements (Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, etc.)
consume over 50% of the federal budget; interest on the debt takes out
another %13.
 
> Total employment directly and indirectly provided by the
> Space Station program was estimated at 60,000 jobs (20,000 of which
> were directly supported). Total employment (directly and indirectly)
> provided by the NASA budget was estimated at about 530,000.
> 
> While lots of efforts are being made to keep the defense/industrial
> base alive by building more submarines, aircraft carriers, fighters
> and defense systems, NASA and the research/technology base seem
> to have been almost forgotten. 
> 
> Apologies if this message was more appropriate to sci.space.policy
> than sci.space.shuttle. To get back to my original point, the
> Russian shuttle program is dead, but they seem to be determined to
> put up another space station, with or without us.
 
Yes, the Russian Space Agency, and the former design bureaus--now
privatized corporations--such as NPO Energia, show remarkable optimism in
the face of daunting fiscal realities, much worse than our own.  They must
laugh at American politicians who cry, "We can't afford manned space!"  But
then, the Russians have never questioned the value of space investment to
the degree some grandstanding US politicians are currently doing.  The
Russians have always been determined to steadily increase their manned
space exploration experience, even when their technology and resources have
been inferior to those available to NASA.
 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
  Steve Munday
  NASA, Johnson Space Center, EG2
  713-483-6623, 713-483-6134 FAX
  [email protected]
  Opinions expressed above are not official NASA views.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Article: 20296
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
From: [email protected] (Gerald G. Marfoe)
Subject: Re: The Cronkite Report/Buran
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet Administrator)
Organization: Auburn University Engineering
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 04:46:04 GMT
 
In article [email protected], [email protected] 
(Stephen R. Munday) writes:
 
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Gerald G.
> Marfoe) wrote:
 
(deletions)

> > Moscow's Gorky Park! Walter Cronkite didn't actually say that it was the
> > Buran, but I figured that it was either the Buran or an engineering
> > mockup. The US isn't the only country with formerly operational/unused
> > space technology on display, at least.
> 
> Someone else has posted that this was a structural test article, not a
> flight article.  The orbiter which flew one mission and it's grounded
> counterpart are apparently mothballed in a hangar.
 
That would probably explain why it looked like all the thermal protection
had been stripped away, leaving bare metal.
 
(Deletions about Bumpers views)
 
> > Apparently he's totally unaware of the fact that NOAA and DoD have been
> > running the nation's weather satellites for the past few decades, 
> > private industry has been running telecommunications satellites, and
> > the Air Force/DoD and other national security agencies are in charge
> > of spy satellites. With people like him deciding the future of our
> > space program, it's no wonder that it's so hard to get support for
> > single stage rocket technology and other worthwhile space initiatives.
> 
> Hear, hear!  It must me sad to go through life with the lack of vision or
> imagination which Mr. Bumpers displays.  Bumpers stated (paraphrasing),
> "Until we solve all of society's problems, going to Mars is CRAZY!" 
> Following Mr. Bumpers rationale, we would never venture beyond low earth
> orbit at all.  Thank God he and his visionless cohorts were not at the helm
> 30 years ago, or we may not have walked the lunar surface.  
> 
> Regardless of what Bumpers and the unimaginative scientist in the program
> (I forget his name) think, space exploration has no point unless we intend
> to eventually experience it first hand, i.e., manned exploration and
> colonization.  It's hard to believe there are people such as Bumpers that
> would never have us emerging from earth's cradle.  Bumpers, Roemer and the
> rest are the same type of closed-minded folks that stood on the shore
> watching Magellan and Columbus take to the sea, shouting, "You'll fall off
> the edge!  You'll be swallowed by giant serpents!"
 
Definitely. He might have been one of Ferdinand and Isabella's advisers
who wanted all of Spain's problems solved first before funding Columbus'
voyages. Or maybe Bumpers is the reincarnation of one of those courtiers
in the Ming Dynasty of 16th century China who ordered that every single
one of their oceangoing vessels be burned, as well as all of their ship's
logs detailing their previous voyages. Bumpers definitely said something like
"NASA doesn't need $14 billion - it can do satellites for $8 billion",
implying that he would totally scrap our Shuttle program.
 
I think the scientist you're referring to is Freeman Dyson. I find it hard
to believe that this is the same man who came up with the idea of the
"Dyson Sphere" (a device which would be built by an advanced spacefaring
civilization to harness the total energy output of a star by enclosing it).
 
Unfortunately, most people are too close-minded to accept that the
ultimate goal of space exploration is for humanity to spread out into the
universe. It's easy to say that it's not pragmatic or practical - but then
who would have imagined the usefulness of the airplane a hundred years ago?
 
> >  NASA Budget (No fiscal year specified - probably 1995) = $14 billion
> >  Total Federal Budget = approximately $1.478 trillion
> >  Total US Gross National Product = approximately $6.6 trillion
> > 
> > Dan Goldin was shown saying that the NASA budget is approximately
> > "one-quarter of one percent of the national budget"; even if there
> > were a "feeding frenzy on Capitol Hill" and the total NASA budget
> > got cut, we still couldn't house all the homeless and feed all
> > the hungry. 
> 
> I believe Goldin said NASA's budget is 1/4 of 1% of the U.S. economy,
> meaning the GNP you listed.  NASA's budget is just under 1% of the federal
> budget, and Space Station represents 1/7 of that--hardly a deficit
> reduction opportunity.  In the Cronkite report, author Ray Bradbury pointed
> out how minute our investment in space is compared with the cost of our war
> effort:  Defense receives nearly twenty times NASA's budget.  Other
> comparisons:  Entitlements (Welfare, Social Security, Medicare, etc.)
> consume over 50% of the federal budget; interest on the debt takes out
> another %13.
 
Oops! Thanks for the correction. Just last week, in the June 13th
USA Today, there was an article showing that discretionary spending
would shrink to less than a quarter of the national budget by 2007 (?),
with entitlements and interest on the national debt taking even larger
chunks of the pie than the present amounts. Things are going to be
getting rougher for NASA, to say the least. I think the current defense 
budget is about $260 billion, and not likely to shrink any further.
 
For me, the biggest flaw in the Cronkite Report was showing so many
scenes from science fiction movies. The average layman just tends to
lump together science fiction with space reality way too often. The
scenes featuring Spock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the old
Flash Gordon scenes were totally irrelevant to the main point of the
program. It would have been nice if he'd shown some of the other
international partners in Space Station Alpha and their contributions
instead. Otherwise, the Cronkite Report was a pretty good discussion
about the rationale for manned spaceflight.
 
> > Apologies if this message was more appropriate to sci.space.policy
> > than sci.space.shuttle. To get back to my original point, the
> > Russian shuttle program is dead, but they seem to be determined to
> > put up another space station, with or without us.
> 
> Yes, the Russian Space Agency, and the former design bureaus--now
> privatized corporations--such as NPO Energia, show remarkable optimism in
> the face of daunting fiscal realities, much worse than our own.  They must
> laugh at American politicians who cry, "We can't afford manned space!"  But
> then, the Russians have never questioned the value of space investment to
> the degree some grandstanding US politicians are currently doing.  The
> Russians have always been determined to steadily increase their manned
> space exploration experience, even when their technology and resources have
> been inferior to those available to NASA.
> 
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>   Steve Munday
>   NASA, Johnson Space Center, EG2
>   713-483-6623, 713-483-6134 FAX
>   [email protected]
>   Opinions expressed above are not official NASA views.
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 
After Bumpers said that "even the Russians are saying that they haven't
found anything useful on their space station", Walter Cronkite's remark
was, "We couldn't find any Russians to confirm that." That was great! :-)
 
On NPR this afternoon, there was a report on the current Alpha funding
battle, featuring sound bites from Al Gore, Rep. Zimmer and Yuri Koptev.
I believe it was Zimmer who kept repeating "we're going to have to 
depend on the Russians for guidance, we're going to have to depend
on the Russians for navigation, ..., we're going to have to depend on
them to launch it and to keep it from falling down". He didn't make
any mention that NASA was planning on buying the FGB tug at all (as
I last read in Space News), and conveniently omitted the fact that
a significant portion of the station is going to be launched on the
US Shuttle. He didn't quite seem to grasp the concept of an orbit
either, judging from what he said about the space station "falling down"
or having to be kept up. Too bad that Congresscritters aren't required
to know anything about science or engineering if they serve on the
subcommittee for Space, Science and Technology.
 
Gerald Marfoe
[email protected]
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald G. Marfoe                 |"Mirabile visu. Mirabilia/Et itur ad astra
Internet: [email protected] |... Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.../
Auburn, AL 36830-5458            |Memento, terrigena./Memento, vita brevis."
                                 |- "Afer Ventus", Enya, "Shepherd Moons"
 

Article: 2868
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
From: [email protected] (Peter V.Vorobieff)
Subject: Re: Cronkite Report misleading
Sender: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 18:17:30 GMT
Organization: Fluids Lab
 
In article <[email protected]>
[email protected] (Dennis Newkirk) writes: 

>The 6/20 Chronkite Report on Discovery was misleading in several respects.
>
>1. He says 100 pilots were training to fly Buran. I don't know who they
>were including but over the last 15 years in total its probably more
>like 30-40. Anyone counting?
 
The initial group was FIVE pilots, and only ONE of them lives now (Volk).
 
>2. He implys the vehicle in Gorky park is 'THE' Buran, which most of 
>the media also says. Of course this is a structural test article 
>and the real flight vehicles are safely in storage.       
 
The structural test thing is in storage as well. One in the park, to my 
limited knowledge, is a partly functional dummy used for landing tests.
 
>3. He says Russia launches 100 'commercial' satellites a year on average. 
>Total satellites maybe, and in the 1980's, but not for the last few years. 
 
Aye.
 
--
Thus spake Kalmoth the Avenger, Kinsman of the Slain.
 
DISCLAIMER: I speak for no one who lives.

Article: 20341
From: [email protected] (Dave Forrest, x6813,RSOC)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: The Cronkite Report/Buran
Date: 24 Jun 1994 21:57:31 GMT
Organization: Rockwell Space Operations
 
In article [email protected], [email protected] (Gerald G.
Marfoe) writes: 

> I think the scientist you're referring to is Freeman Dyson. I find it hard
> to believe that this is the same man who came up with the idea of the
> "Dyson Sphere" (a device which would be built by an advanced spacefaring
> civilization to harness the total energy output of a star by enclosing it).
> 
> Unfortunately, most people are too close-minded to accept that the
> ultimate goal of space exploration is for humanity to spread out into the
> universe. It's easy to say that it's not pragmatic or practical - but then
> who would have imagined the usefulness of the airplane a hundred years ago?

I'd like to defend Freeman Dyson a bit here.  He is far from
short-sighted.  His argument is that we can get more bang for our buck
from probes right now. He is also highly critical of the NASA way of
doing business - he thinks that we are starving real science to
through money into an inefficient operation.  He did admit that
ultimately humans will have to go to the places that we wish to
discover.  I think his problem really is that he sees NASA as a
wasteful bureaucracy spending billions of dollars that would provide a
higher return if spent on smaller, more scientific programs.  I don't
necessarily agree with him, but I hate to see a distinguished
scientist lumped in with folks like Sen. Bumpers. 
 
   
David J. Forrest                                                  _/_/_/_/
Rockwell Space Operations Co. / ROSE Project                     _/
[email protected]                              _/_/_/_/_/
** The opinions expressed herein are mine alone.           _/  _/
** RSOC doesn't speak for me and I don't speak for RSOC   _/_/_/
 
Article: 20362
From: [email protected] (Marvin Moore)
Date: 26 Jun 94 22:53:16 -0600
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Cronkite Report
Organization: Magical Mystery
 
Hi Gerald,  Yes I saw the last part of the above show. Sen. Bumpers
attitude toward space needs vast re-adjustment.  However I'm concerned
that his views continue to grow with or  other Sen. and Reps.  He is
correct in stating that he has come closer each year to killing the
space station and no doubt will try again this year.  The amount of
money spent on NASA in comparisson with other agencys is so small it's
like you buying a pice of gum a very very minor expense.  I have
always urgered those concerned about space to write to these gentlemen
to express their  views and have done so myself.  The only thing that
get's their attention is vast amounts of mail on an issue.  Wish that
I had been able to see the entire show not just the last 20 min or so.
 Anyone who thinks that they can solve all of the social ill's of h 
this country by using NASA'S budget is really out to lunch.  I get so
mad when I hear these so called intelligent people say we se spend to
much on space.  Their isn't a dollar bill in orbit that I know of.  I
can tell of many dollars paid to corporations, scientist, manugfacture'sm, 
ect. all seem to be here on Earth, however.  Well thats about all I can 
say about this Sen. and his self-rightousness. 

                                                Marv

Article: 20403
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
From: [email protected] (Gerald G. Marfoe)
Subject: Re: The Cronkite Report/Buran
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet Administrator)
Organization: Auburn University Engineering
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 20:15:38 GMT
 
In article [email protected], [email protected] 
(George W. Hastings) writes:
> ....and did anybody get the 800 phone number for ordering a copy
> of the program?
 
The ad didn't say how much the Cronkite Report video cost, only that you
could get a copy using your Visa, Mastercard or American Express. 
Here's the number:  1-800-652-5566
 
Hope that helps.
 
Gerald Marfoe
[email protected]
---
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald G. Marfoe                 |"Mirabile visu. Mirabilia/Et itur ad astra
Internet: [email protected] |... Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.../
Auburn, AL 36830-5458            |Memento, terrigena./Memento, vita brevis."
                                 |- "Afer Ventus", Enya, "Shepherd Moons"
 

Article: 5084
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
From: dennisn@sc734 (Dennis Newkirk)
Subject: Russian Space News
Organization: Motorola
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 19:11:47 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Net News)
 
[This summary of Russian space news from roughly the first half of 1994
was published in Countdown magazine July/August 1994 issue p.20-22.]
 
News From the Russian Space Front: By Dennis Newkirk
 
	The western press has paid some minor notice this spring to the 
movement of a static test mock-up Buran orbiter from NPO Molniya Tushino 
plant to Gorky park in Moscow. The Kosmos-Zemlya company formed by NPO 
Molniya, the park, Kosmoflot and headed by Gherman Titov, is trying to make 
a buck by using the test article as the framework for a new space motif 
restaurant. Videokosmos is producing a video production of Earth views to 
be shown in simulated port holes as up to 60 patrons eat from a 
100 varieties of space food for a cost of $70. 	Following a May 25, 1993 
decision of the Council of Chief Designers the Buran project has been 
placed in mothballs. Orbiters at Baykonur are being placed in storage and 
LII and Air Force cosmonaut groups trained for Buran flights are waiting 
to hear of their reassignment. Meanwhile, ITAR-TASS announced the imminent 
launch of the Buran, on April fools day.
 
	The collision of Mir and Soyuz TM-17 has been described as a 
glancing brush caused by a misconfiguration of the Soyuz joystick controllers.
After undocking, Tsibliyev was tasked (after a NASA request) to photograph 
the new shuttle docking target attached to the Kristall module. The photos 
would aid training of NASA crews scheduled to dock to Mir in 1995. Shortly 
after undocking Tsibliyev discovered the translation controller had been 
inadvertently  disabled. Without time to reconfigure the system he changed 
the attitude of the Soyuz to try avoid collision with the Kristall module 
but a glancing blow occurred. No damage was visible and the crewmen in Mir 
reported they did not feel any collision. More inspections are planned of 
the area of contact and EVAs were not ruled out should something 
significant be discovered. 

	After landing, Tsibliyev blamed ground support for rejecting the 
cosmonauts suggested procedure for maneuvering around Mir and imposed a 
different procedure. The task of photographing the target was only 
communicated to the  cosmonauts shortly before undocking. Serebrov expected 
the cosmonauts to be blamed for the incident. NPO Energia is aware that 
such incidents must be avoided in the future owing to planning to continue 
use of Mir by both Russia and the NASA.

 	Meanwhile, Russia awaits the first significant payments of the 
promised $400 million for joint spaceflights from NASA. As of Feb. 1994, 
the only payments to Russia from NASA were for travel expenses incurred 
in planning trips to the USA. There is no money to change hands in exchange 
for the 1993 and 1994 flights of cosmonauts on shuttles or the first flight 
of astronauts to Mir. This reality makes US government touting of financial 
aid to Russia as result of manned spaceflight agreements as illusive as the 
international space station itself. 

	 In other related events, the Yevpatoriya spaceflight control center 
has been reactivated for use with manned spaceflights after a financial 
fallout between the Ukraine and Russia in 1992. 
 
	Another hot story this spring has been the new cosmodrome. The 
Russian government has approved a feasibility study by the RSA, the Ministries
of Economics, Finance, Defence, and State Committee for Defense Industry for 
development of Plesetsk, and establishing a launch complex at Svobodnyy near 
the Chinese border. Svobodnyy-18 was an SS-11 ICBM base built in 1968 and 
closed in late 1993 with the last crews leaving in Feb. 1994. The study is 
due to end in 1994. 

	Meanwhile a preliminary design for a Angara-24  booster to be 
launched from Svobodnyy is being preformed by NPO Energia, Khrunichev, and 
the Makeyev Design Bureau. One design calls for use of Zenit stages, and 
Energia components to make a Kerosene-Oxygen and Hydrogen-Oxygen two or three 
stage booster with a reusable first stage. Test launches are projected for 
1998-99. In 1996, it is also planned for modified SS-19 ICBMs to be used 
to launch 1500 kg. satellites (the SS-19s are due to be destroyed by 2003 
due to arms control agreements). The 1996 launches would occur from 2 
restored ICBM silos with the possibility for opening 3 more and building 2 
new pads for the Angara-24. 55 other silos have been destroyed in accordance 
to the Start-2 treaty and much of the land once occupied by the base will 
revert to civilian use. For now, efforts are limited to maintaining the 
current facilities with the aim at allowing conversion of a silo within 6 
months for satellite launches.

	The local population is voicing concerns about ecological effects of 
a launch site. The RSA is in favor of continued use of existing cosmodromes 
while the military favors reactivation of its former ICBM base to lessen the 
painful effects of military cutbacks. Press accounts in March went so far as 
to note opposition to the plan by some scientists, the militaries naming of a 
candidate for Chief of the cosmodrome, and denials from government officials 
that a new cosmodrome could be built at all even if it gained approval due to 
Russia's financial situation. 
 
	Agreements between Russian and Kazakstan about Baykonur still has not 
resolved problems at the Cosmodrome. The Russian intention to fund and 
administer everything within the border of the cosmodrome in return for 
leasing the site has brought dispute from Kazakstan officials. Kazakstans 
position was that baykonur should be partially leased by Russian and be 
controlled by an international corporation. Kazakstan meanwhile accounts 
payments due for the last 2 years of cosmodrome use and other military 
facilities in Kazakstan to be about $7 billion, which they recognize as 
unrealistic and they use the figure to illustrate that their position of 
demanding a joint administration of Baykonur is not being unreasonable. 
Muddying the waters is a Russian report that on Feb. 19, the US officially 
signed on to Kazakstans idea that the base be an international entity.

 	As these difficulties were being worked out the Russian government 
agreed that all Russian personnel working at the Cosmodrome to support space 
launches were to be awarded in addition to payment and benefits provided by 
employers other than the Russian government : 
 
 Compensation of 25 times the monthly minimum wage 
 A supplementary 1 day leave per month up to 7 days 
 A 1.5 times increase in per diem allowance 
 Prenatal leave in Russia and return to Baykonur 
 50% compensation of dispensary food costs for children, and annual travel 
to Russia and back for children who have spent more than a year in a medical 
or health facility. 	
 
	The dispute has included spacecraft recovery forces based in the 
Chelyabinskiy Olbast. Flights carry the search and recovery forces over 
Kazakstan as a routine matter. Flights now must be proceeded by officially 
approved flight plans and the helicopters take off loaded with bags of cash 
to refuel in Kazakstan. In 1994, monthly talks between RSA officials and 
Kazakstan continued to try to resolve the Baykonur problem. RSA head Yuri 
Koptev stated that only portions of the cosmodrome were to be maintained 
and rented, and military forces would be slowly phased out. On March 7, a 
large fire broke out in a annex of MIK-2 destroying 5 rooms and equipment 
the within with damage totaling over 1 million Roubles. Negligence was 
cited as the cause, and contributing factors were the lack of water (one 
of the water sources for the base was abandoned earlier in the winter), heavy 
snow, and delivery of newer vehicles had been delayed due to negotiations 
effecting their ultimate ownership. Earlier at Baykonur an officers garrison 
burned down. 	

	New development not absolutely needed for missions has also been 
differed due to the ownership dispute. On March 18, a general agreement was 
reached on leasing the base for 30 years and about the military use of the 
base, but talks continued on specifics of the plan. The general plan was 
signed on March 28 by Boris Yeltsin and Nursultan Nazarbayev calling for the 
payment of $115 million. But, by April 13, Kazakstan charged that the sum was 
due monthly while the agreement is not clear about the period. Thus the 
monthly negotiations resumed to further clarify the situation. 

	Since the independence of Kazakstan, 21,000 people have left Leninsk. 
28,000 military personnel remain to run the cosmodrome. Apartments which were 
once hard to get are now left abandoned. Many facilities are closed and food 
has become more scarce. Launch pads and other facilities are subject to 
random looting of copper cables, sheet metal roofing, etc...  Officers now 
guard launch pads due to the lack of 2500 needed recruits.  Oleg Soskovets, 
First Deputy Prime Minister, reported that social activities were nonexistent,
 heating was cut off, wages had not been paid in March and restoration needed 
to begin by April. The RSA reports that 34% of the scientists and specialists 
have left the traditional space industry by mid 1993. 	
 
 	At Plesetsk, funding for military launches is at a minium. Commercial 
launches are being invited to help continue funding for the facility. In Dec. 
1993, the Cosmodrome defaulted on payments for power sources, auxiliary 
systems were shut down and shutdown of launch pad system was being 
contemplated. US missile test monitoring equipment has been installed at 
Plesetsk for verification of arms limitations treaties. In return, Russian 
has also installed equipment for the same purposes in the USA. Plesetsk is 
being sued for 1.2 Billion rubles for environmental damage near Koyda due to 
rocket launches. Representatives of the launch site agree to the environmental 
damage but claim the space sector is unable to pay the damages claimed. In 
response, an independent inquiry will reassess the damages. 
 
	Nearly forgotten but not dead yet, Australian Space Transportation 
Systems Ltd. is pursuing the idea of opening a spaceport in Papua New Guinea 
after its attempts to open a Cape York spaceport failed. Russian officials 
toured some possible sites. Proton boosters would be the preferred booster 
with a payload increased to 9000 Kg. to geostationary orbit from the new 
launch site near the equator. The total cost to build a cosmodrome is 
estimated at $1 Billion, so far $500,000 has been made available to do the 
study. 

	Meanwhile, NPO Energia has been allowed by Premier Chernomyrdin to 
pursue joint international development of a sea based launch vehicle in 
cooperation with the Ukraine. In 1993, 59 payloads were launched by Russia. 
26 boosters launched 36 satellites from Plesetsk. 26 launches were by Soyuz 
variants and 60% of launches were for defense purposes.
 
	Russian Space Agency Deputy General Director Yuri Milov announced 
that government funding for 4 unmanned projects would be continued while 
funding for 28 other proposed space probes and communications satellite 
projects would not be forthcoming. Among the four survivors are the Mars 94 
and Mars 96 projects which are to be delayed, thus becoming Mars 96 and 
Mars 98 respectively. NPO Lavochkin has proposed using its propulsion section 
from the its Mars probes as an additional upper stage for the Soyuz and 
Proton family of boosters. 
 
	The first Gals communications satellite was launched on Jan. 20 after 
being delayed from the day before. The Gals represents a new generation in 
Russian communications satellites providing direct broadcast TV to dishes 
60-90 cm. diameter. 
 
	Cooperation on Brazils plan for a 1995 launch are endangered by 
the the MCTR nonproliferation agreement. Chile has expressed interested in the 
possibility of sending someone to Mir. India has resolved its problems caused 
by the US Department of States stubborn insistence on application of MCTR 
rules to India's purchase of Hydrogen-Oxygen rocket design and production 
facilities originally developed by the Khimmash Design Bureau for the N1/L3M 
lunar landing program. As a result, India will now purchase a static and 4 
flight units for $3 million each with first delivery in 1996. 
 
	Khrunichev in the form of the LKE joint venture has booked flights 
of Proton boosters up to the year 2000. Nine contracts totaling $600 million 
have been signed as of the beginning of 1994. The first Express capsule is 
due to be launched in August 1994 from Japan. A general agreement on 
cooperation was signed with China in March but no specifics were forthcoming. 
Talks began on a joint NASA-RSA mission to Pluto. Launch would be provided on 
a Proton and the NASA spacecraft would carry small Russian probes to closely 
approach Pluto and Charon. Another mission would also use a Proton booster to 
launch a NASA spacecraft with Russian sensors to study the sun after using a 
Jupiter fly-by. 	
 
 	Several military publications were closed in early 1994 including the 
well known and respected Aviatsiya I Kosmonavtika, the journal of the Russian 
Air Force. It was kind of a more technical version of the Smithsonians Air and
Space magazine. It and four other armed forces journals are to be combined 
into Armeyskiy Sboronik in July 1994.
 
	In May, it was announced that the cosmonaut contingent was to be 
reduced by about 50% to cut costs. The first cut were the older cosmonauts, 
mostly above age 50, who maintained their status by continuing to pass 
periodic physicals while they worked at jobs not necessarily related to any 
space program. 
 
Thanks to Nicholas Johnson and Rex Hall for providing information for this 
article. 
 
-- 
Dennis Newkirk ([email protected])
Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector
Schaumburg, IL