Russians Expect Delay of Space Launch to Mir

ALMATY (Reuters) - Russia expects the launch of a rocket carrying vital equipment to the Mir space station to be delayed this week because of a row with Kazakhstan over use of its cosmodrome, a Russian space official said on Monday. The launch of the ...

ALMATY (Reuters) - Russia expects the launch of a rocket carrying vital equipment to the Mir space station to be delayed this week because of a row with Kazakhstan over use of its cosmodrome, a Russian space official said on Monday. The launch of the Progress cargo craft by a Soyuz booster rocket is scheduled for Wednesday. The three-man French-Russian crew is due to leave Mir in late August and a guidance system which is due to be delivered by the Progress is intended to help prevent the station crashing to earth while Moscow finds the cash to send up a new team. Mir is also dogged by a problem which has caused a fall in air pressure, the latest in a long series of hazards. Kazakhstan stopped all launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Moscow rents, after a Russian Proton-K rocket crashed to earth last week and scattered debris over the Kar-Karalinsk region in central Kazakhstan. The vast Central Asian state is demanding compensation for the costs of the clean-up operation. Moscow has agreed to pay but experts are still assessing the damage and it could take time for the costs to be fully paid. Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev accused Moscow of negligence on Sunday, saying Russia had failed to react quickly enough to the accident, sent only a low-level delegation to investigate and ignored previous environmental warnings. Russia has said Kazakhstan‘s reaction is exaggerated. Kazakhstan said it was checking the local water supply and soil for traces of a highly toxic fuel component called "giptil", known to have powered the failed Proton. The two countries have enjoyed generally good ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but the Proton accident shows how sensitive Kazakhstan remains to the treatment it receives from its more powerful northern neighbour. The sides signed an agreement in 1994 on Russia‘s use of Baikonur for an annual rent of $115 million, since when Moscow has run up arrears of more than $300 million. Previous agreements could be up for review as a result of the rocket row after Balgimbayev said Kazakhstan might enforce a "permission" system for future launches.

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