U.S.-Russian crews for ISS visit Baikonur base

The International Space Station

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -- A U.S. and Russian crew due to be the first men to inhabit the $60 billion International Space Station arrived at the Baikonur cosmodrome Wednesday to inspect the craft on which they are due to fly.

Bill Shepherd of the United States and Russians Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov will take off for the ISS at the end of October, crowning an effort fraught with delays over several years. They will fly to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz TM-31 rocket currently being prepared for the flight.

A standby crew also arrived, including American Kenneth Bowersox and Russians Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin. All six men have been undergoing training for the flight at Star City near Moscow.

Nikolai Zelenshchikov, first vice-president of Russia's Energia Corp., which built the long-running Mir space laboratory as well as the Soyuz rocket, said the final date for the launch had still to be fixed.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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