Celebrating Russian space worker drowns in Texas

HOUSTON (Reuters) -- A Russian flight control specialist on assignment to NASA's Johnson Space Center drowned on Wednesday while celebrating the docking of the Russian Zvezda service module to the International Space Station, police said.

The 38-year-old victim, whose name had not been released, was found in the early morning hours at the bottom of a swimming pool in an apartment complex near the space center, said Mike Keller, chief of police in the Houston suburb of Webster.

Keller said the drowning appeared to be accidental and there were reports the victim and several Russian friends had been drinking to mark the Zvezda's successful coupling with the space station on Tuesday evening.

"I've heard that said that they were partying a little bit," he told reporters. An autopsy would be performed to determine if alcohol was a factor in the drowning, he said.

Keller said the man's friends had pulled him from the pool and were attempting to revive him when police arrived.

The Russian-built Zvezda, which is a command post and living quarters, hooked up with the two pieces of the space station already linked in orbit in a remotely-controlled maneuver 220 miles over central Asia.

It was launched from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan two weeks ago in a flight delayed more than two years by Russia's economic woes.

Webster police said the drowning victim had been in the United States working on the space station since April 1999, but was thought to have arrived in Houston just 12 days ago.

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