Russians fear becoming space cabbies

Russia's space industries are still reeling from the post-Soviet economic meltdown, when they couldn't afford modern equipment and suffered an exodus of workers and engineers.

Russia's space program survived mostly on commercial launches of foreign satellites and income from ferrying foreign astronauts and space tourists.

Government spending on the space program has since increased thanks to Russia's oil-driven economic boom, but the industry still lacks the money to design replacements for its Soviet-designed boosters and spacecraft.

The Soyuz and the Progress date from the mid-1960s, and Russian space officials stress their excellent safety record and updated control systems, saying the only thing they share with the original Soyuz craft is their exterior design.

But a Soyuz can only carry only 110 pounds of cargo back to Earth along with a crew, sharply limiting its ability to transport scientific experiments or equipment.

The Progress hauls about 2.75 tons of cargo to the space station, less than a fifth of the space shuttle's capacity. The Soyuz's three cosmonauts must stay seated during the two-day trip to the space station. During re-entry to Earth's atmosphere the craft decelerates rapidly, exerting severe G-forces. Parachutes drop the craft on the Central Asian steppes, making for a rough touchdown.

State-controlled RKK Energia, which builds the Soyuz and Progress ships, has long proposed building a new, reusable spacecraft called the Clipper.

Energia says it would make space travel more comfortable and cut the cost of delivering crews to orbit by two-thirds. The Clipper, with six seats compared to three on Soyuz, could be used for a moon mission, as well as ferrying space station crews.

Energia chief Nikolai Sevastyanov said building five Clippers would cost about $1.5 billion.

So far, however, Energia has only built a plywood and plastic model.

"The Americans, the Europeans, the Japanese all are developing space technologies of the future, while Russia is just marking time," Marinin said.

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