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Russia to launch resupply craft to space station on 29 January

Posted on: Friday, 12 December 2003, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 12 December: The first launch in 2004 from the Baykonur spaceport to the International Space Station [ISS] is scheduled for 29 January. The NASA coordinator, Sergey Puzanov, told an ITAR-TASS correspondent today that a Soyuz-U spacecraft carrying the Progress resupply ship is scheduled to be launched on that date.

Russian Aerospace Agency specialists are now working in the assembly and testing facility at the southern spaceport [in Kazakhstan] to ensure readiness of the cargo craft and the rocket. Puzanov said that the Progress cargo craft will deliver fuel, water and food necessary for the station and the crew to carry on their ordinary operations.

An additional "freighter", the fourth this year, was to be launched to the ISS by the end of December, but due to financial difficulties, the launch was postponed. Under the government's order, signed on 1 December, the Finance Ministry transferred an extra 1.5bn roubles to the Russian Aerospace Agency's account to ensure normal operation at the ISS.

The NASA coordinator recalled that American shuttles had stopped serving the ISS after the accident with Columbia on 1 February this year. Until they resume their flights, Russia is fully responsible for crew rotation and cargo delivery to orbit.

"In 2004, under the international space programme, it is planned to launch two manned Soyuz spacecraft (in April and in autumn) and four or five Progress cargo craft (depending on their readiness at the Energiya space rocket corporation and the needs of the station's crew) to the ISS," Puzanov said.

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