ID :
173407
Wed, 04/06/2011 - 08:18
Auther :

Bolden to attend Gagarin flight anniversary celebrations

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Itar-Tass) - Charles Bolden, head of the US
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will arrive in Moscow
for the April 12 celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's
historic space flight, Russian Vice-Premier Sergei Ivanov, who is
currently here on a working visit, said Tuesday in response to a question
put by an Itar-Tass correspondent.
Ivanov said, "The directors of all space agencies existing in the
world have been invited" to Moscow. "I was told here that Mr. Bolden would
arrive," the Vice-Premier pointed out.
"Immediately after April 12, the working group on space research
within the framework of the bilateral Presidential commission on
cooperation will hold a session. The matter to be discussed is obvious:
what we must do, preferably together, after 2020 when the service length
of the International Space Station will expire. Maybe, we shall extend its
operation for another three years, or for five at most. However, this is
just an instant in space time measurement".
The Vice-Premier emphasized, "In actual fact one must begin to ponder
already now what to do next". "Any space projects connected with
long-duration flights, to Mars, for instance, encounter a technological
problem connnected with spaceship's propulsion plants," Ivanov said. "In
the opinion of scientists and specialists, only a nuclear energy
installation can be such a propulsion unit. There is yet another aspect:
whatever (space) plans could be, they are so costly now that no country in
the world acting alone would be able to cope. This is more expensive than
the military budgets of many countries in the world".
"It is essential to develop a new (type of) spaceship," Ivanov is
convinced. "Such projects are available with individual enterprises that
are part of the Roscosmos (Russia's Federal Space Agency), first of all,
the Energia space rocket corporation. Russia is one of the leading
countries in the world in the development of a nuclear propulsion plant".

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