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Russian space officials say pride belongs solely to China as it

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- Russian space officials took time out Wednesday from their own hectic pre-launch preparations to congratulate China on joining the ranks of spacefaring nations and downplayed Russia's aid to the Chinese space program.

``Often, we are asked, 'Did Russia nourish the Chinese cosmonauts?' I have to say that Russia has fed all the world's space programs,'' said Nikolai Moiseyev, first deputy head of the Russian space agency, Rosaviakosmos.

But, he added, ``the pride should be felt by China and the Chinese specialists. We simply welcome the event and are happy for them.''

The Chinese on Wednesday were the talk of Baikonur, where the Soviet Union pioneered manned space flight with Yuri Gagarin's 1961 trip into orbit. On Saturday, the Russians will launch a three-man crew -- a Russian, a British NASA astronaut and a Spaniard -- to the International Space Station from the same pad from which Gagarin blasted off.

News of the Chinese launch filtered in as Russian air force officers and space officials gathered for breakfast at the Baikonur Hotel. It was the first question everyone asked, ``Did the Chinese launch?'' All smiled when they heard; some also congratulated each other.

But Russian space officials went out of their way to minimize the significance of Russian aid to China's fledgling space program.

``It is a significant event that permits pride in one's country and ... especially shows the level of development,'' Moiseyev said.

The former Soviet Union had leant support to Communist China -- providing technological know-how and welcoming Chinese students into its science academies -- but that largely ended when relations soured between the giant neighbors. It resumed in earnest in the mid-1990s when Russia's cash-starved space program eagerly sought outside sources of financing.

Russia sold space technology to China and trained two Chinese air force pilots at the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow; Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, who went into space Wednesday, was not one of them. China's Shenzhou 5 craft is also loosely based on Russia's three-seat Soyuz capsule.

Russia's Kommersant business newspaper crowed Wednesday: ``China has only succeeded in becoming a space power thanks to Russia's assistance.''

But China has insisted that everything sent into space would be developed and made in China.

``They have built the ship themselves. Their program is entirely independent,'' Konstantin Kreidenko, spokesman for the Russian space agency, said in a telephone interview.

Igor Lisov, an analyst with the independent monthly Space News, who has closely followed the Chinese space program, said that China had tapped Russia's experience but performed a lot of independent work.

``Their ship resembles the Russian Soyuz, but it's not a copy,'' Lisov told The Associated Press. ``The ship's landing capsule is bigger -- an indication that they have done a lot of their own work. They wanted to be completely sure that it can fly, and then developed it further.''

Asked whether the Chinese might become a future competitor to Russia in the space arena, Moiseyev shrugged off the question. Sergei Gorbunov, the Russian space agency's main spokesman, acknowledged, however, that competition in the space field ``has always been and always will be.''

But both on the eve of and after the launch, most Russian space workers seemed content simply to share in the happiness of another space success story. When it came time for the traditional vodka toasts, shot glasses were raised to the Chinese expedition.

(vi/mb/jh)

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