RI's 'Mir' cosmonaut plan idle

RI's 'Mir' cosmonaut plan idle

MOSCOW (Agencies): Indonesia, which two months ago began negotiations with the Russian space agency RKA to put a cosmonaut on the Russian orbital space station Mir, has abandoned the project, Itar-Tass news agency reported yesterday.

The Indonesian government gave no reason for its change of plan, according to an RKA official, but the Russian space agency assumed that financial problems were the cause.

According to AFP, the Russian news agency reported that a seven to 10-day stay on board Mir entails a bill of some US$12 million for foreign space agencies who send up an astronaut.

To this must be added $8 million for the pre-trip training on earth of the chosen candidate and his stand-in, the agency said.

RKA has been operating Mir for 12 years and hopes to keep its pride and joy working until the end of the millennium.

A U.S. astronaut, David Wolf, is currently aboard the space station, and a Frenchman, Leopold Eyharts, is due to head for it on Jan. 29.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, R. Sunaryo, an advisor on aerospace affairs for the State Minister for Research and Technology, could not confirm the cancellation.

"I still have no official word about this," he said as quoted by Antara.