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By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
.c The Associated Press

KOROLYOV, Russia (AP) - A Russian spacecraft on automatic pilot moored itself to the international space station Friday, bringing two cosmonauts and a Belgian astronaut to the orbiter while officials warned that Russia lacks money for the next mission.

The Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft attached itself to the station in an automatic docking procedure, drawing applause from flight engineers, space officials and crew members' relatives watching at Russia's mission control center in Korolyov, outside Moscow.

The craft was carried into orbit by a Soyuz FG rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Commander Sergei Zaletin, Belgian first flight engineer Frank de Winne of the European Space Agency and second flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov are to return to Earth in another Soyuz on Nov. 10, leaving their ship behind as a lifeboat for the space station's current crew.

De Winne is to conduct 17 scientific experiments, several involving the effects of weightlessness on DNA, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The launch, originally set for Monday, was postponed after an unmanned Soyuz-U booster rocket blew up shortly after lifting off from a launch site run by the Russian military on Oct. 15, killing one Russian soldier on the ground and injuring seven others. Space officials said this week that a foreign object was found in the rocket's fuel line.

``We would never have done the launch if we did not have 120 percent understanding of what happened there,'' said Yuri Semyonov, the chief of the Energia company, which is leading Russia's participation in the international space station.

The Soyuz FG, a modernized version of the Soyuz-U, was tested in two unmanned launches, as required by the Russian space agency's safety standards, said Valery Lyndin, a mission control spokesman.

The current mission is also the first flight of the Soyuz TMA-1, an upgraded version of the Soyuz spaceship that has been a mainstay of the Soviet and Russian space programs since 1966.

The Soyuz TMA-1 features an improved control system and more comfortable seats that can accommodate larger crew members, Lyndin said. ``The new ship is good even for a stout space tourist,'' he joked.

The cash-strapped Russian space agency has sought to supplement scarce government funding with revenues from space tourists. California businessman Dennis Tito paid the Russian space agency about $20 million for a weeklong trip to the station last year, and South African Mark Shuttleworth went in April.

Russian space officials hoped 'N Sync singer Lance Bass would fly on the current mission. He trained at the Russian cosmonaut center, but was replaced by Lonchakov after his sponsors missed several deadlines to pay.

Semyonov said government funds allocated for the next year are one-quarter of what is needed to meet Russia's commitments under the space station project.

``We are short of funds to complete spaceships, and the situation with booster rockets is even worse,'' Semyonov said. He warned that if his company doesn't quickly get funds to complete the next Soyuz, ``the entire ISS program will collapse.''

The international space station's crew now includes American Peggy Whitson and her two Russian crewmates, who have been aboard the orbiting complex since June. They are to return to Earth on the space shuttle Endeavour, which is to bring a replacement crew to the station this month.


 
11/01/02 12:49 EST
   

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.