Yeltsin Pledges Cash for Space Station

President Boris N. Yeltsin promised Friday to resume funding for Russia’s share of a planned international space station, after budget problems delayed the project for eight months.

Yeltsin made the pledge on the eve of Russia’s holiday marking the anniversary of the April 12, 1961, flight that made cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin the first man to orbit Earth.

Three decades later, cash-strapped Russia fears that its international partners will kick it out of one of the latest space ventures: the international station to replace Russia’s aging Mir, currently the only manned space station.

Months ago, Russia’s chronic money-crunch led it to stop funding for work on a service module that is to be its major contribution to the Alpha space station. Yeltsin said the government would release $261 million for the work over the next two months.

The Russian space agency chief, Yuri Koptev, conceded earlier this year that delays in government funding meant the first launch of a section of the space station, scheduled for November 1997, would have to be delayed until June 1998.