NATION : U.S. to Participate in Soviet Project to Orbit Radio Telescope

In another sign of the warming U.S.-U.S.S.R. relationship, the two countries today announced American participation in a Soviet plan to launch a radio telescope into orbit.

The United States will play a role in the RADIOASTRON project, a three- to four-year mission to launch a satellite into orbit in the mid-1990s carrying a radio telescope to probe the universe.

The project involves launching a Soviet satellite between 1993 and 1995 equipped with a 33-foot antenna that will gather data and transmit it to ground-based radio telescopes for up to five years.

Scientists will analyze the data to study such fundamental astrophysical phenomena as active galaxies and quasars, neutron stars and black holes and perhaps acquire a greater understanding of basic physics, officials said.