Russians reach for the stars

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 12

Russians reach for the stars

From “The Economist,” London

Russia is starting to notch up space spectaculars faster than the United States. Last week two unmanned Russian spacecraft, Vega-1 and Vega-2, circled around Venus dropping balloons into its atmosphere and scientific instruments on to its surface. Now both spacecraft are looping back towards earth for a rendezvous with Halley’s Comet in 1986. American scientists who are helping to collect the scientific information sent back from Venus are jubilant about Russia’s success. Politicians launching America’s Strategic Defence Initiative may be less enthusiastic about Russian achievements in space. Until this year Russia has been obsessively secretive about its space programme: in 1957 news of Sputnik hit the west like a bolt from the red. At scientific meetings in recent months, however, Russian scientists have surprised their western colleagues by talking frankly and enthusiastically about their plans for exploring the P .W th ’ good reason: for first time in two decades, the Russian

programme appears to be edging ahead. It will be five years before America launches a mission to Venus on the lines of the two Vegas, and there are other examples of America’s plans lagging behind.

• America is the only spacefaring nation that will not rendezvous with Halley’s Comet when it returns from behind the sun next year for the first time in 76 years. Russia and Japan are sending two spacecraft each; Europe one. To save face, America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) has quickly rerouted an old satellite it launched in 1978 in the hope that it can meet another comet later this year. • America beat Russia to the moon with its Apollo landing in 1969. Both super-Powers now plan to put spacecraft in orbit around the moon to map its surface and study its chemistry. Russia is ahead: its orbiter is expected to fly by 1990, two or even three years before N.A.S.A.’s. A ' • An American project to sgnl a spacecraft around Mars to analyse

its climate and the composition of its surface has been repeatedly postponed; it is unlikely to fly before 1990. Russia, meanwhile, intends to put a pair of matching spacecraft around the planet in 1988. They will later peel off to explore Phobos and Deimos, the two Martian moons.

Planetary exploration, admittedly, is only one part of the space race. Russia does not possess a reusable space-taxi like the shuttle, and its Salyut space station will look primitive when N.A.S.A. launches the west's $lO billion space station by the end of the decade.

But the expense of the shuttle and the space station seem to be quenching Congress's thirst for planetary exploration. One way to cut costs would be co-operation between the super-Powers, but .it is 10 years since America's Apollo shook hands in space with Russia’s Soyuz-19. With star wars on the horizon., a repeat performance hardly looks imminent. Copyright, "The Economist."