Russia rejects U.S. space plea

BAIKONUR, Kazakstan -- Russia is set to send a three-man crew -- including the world's first space tourist -- to the international space station on Saturday despite a U.S. request to delay the launch.

NASA wanted to extend the space shuttle Endeavor's stay at the ISS for a second day after computer problems forced astronauts on the station to postpone operations of a critical robot arm.

Such a delay would require Russia to postpone its own launch of a Soyuz booster rocket carrying two cosmonauts and space tourist, U.S. businessman Dennis Tito.

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But the general director of the Energiya space company that built the Russian module on the ISS, Yuri Semyonov, said Russian space officials had made a final decision on Friday to launch the crew.

"The blastoff decision confirmed today regarding the crew, including the first space tourist Dennis Tito, is final," Semyonov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

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"The Americans should solve the problems they're having on the ISS themselves."

Semyonov said that space experts had told him the Soyuz could still be docked while Endeavor was at the ISS.

U.S. officials are concerned that the Soyuz will be too close to the shuttle as it is trying to dock, Associated Press reported.

Some Russian officials have also expressed concern that the shuttle could block the radio signal from the space station's automatic docking system.

And Reuters quoted Viktor Blagov, deputy head of the flight programme, as saying that any decision could be reconsidered hours before the planned launch if Russian and U.S. experts failed to fix ISS computer problems that emerged on Tuesday.

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NASA

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