Russians turn down joint space mission

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 31

Russians turn down joint space mission

NZPA Washington . The Soviet Union has given a firm no to the offer from the United States for a joint practice space rescue mission in which astronauts and cosmonauts would visit each other’s ships, says N.A.S.A.’s top official. “They turned us down, flat, without explanation,” said James Beggs, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “I’m not very optimistic that exchanges of human beings, getting their men and women cosmonauts to fly with us, or our men and women astronauts to fly

with them, will happen in the near future,” Mr Beggs said. The offer for a simulated rescue of marooned space travellers was made by the American President, Mr Ronald Reagan, about a year ago. Until now, the Administration has said the Russians had responded only that the time was not ripe for discussing such a mission. Mr Beggs’ statement was the first indication there had been a flat rejection. “It would be a very interesting thing to do because it would allow us then

to speculate, or at least start to plan on the possibility of having exchanges when we both have space stations,” Mr Beggs told the American Stock Exchange Washington Conference. Earlier this year, published reports said Mr Reagan was planning to renew his offer but that the killing of Major Arthur Nicholson of the United States Army, by a Soviet sentry in East Germany caused him to delete it from a speech he made on March 24. The rescue rehearsal envisioned by American plan-

ners would involve the two ships making a rendezvous i and flying side by side. An i astronaut wearing a jet > backpack could fly over to ■ the Soviet Salyut spacecraft' and might also use the backpack to push a spacesuited cosmonaut back to the shuttle. The United States and the Soviet Union have co-oper-ated on a number of space ventures, but the only joint manned mission was the flight in July, 1975, when three men aboard an Apollo ship linked with two Russian’s in a Soyuz and visited each other’s spacecraft through a docking tunnel.