NASA’s Fears Unfounded, Russia Says

Russia dismissed U.S. concerns that failing equipment was endangering crew safety on the International Space Station, saying Friday that NASA was simply in the dark about the situation on board since grounding its shuttles.

NASA had said that operations aboard the station were growing increasingly difficult to maintain, citing deterioration in some environmental systems and exercise equipment.

Environmental and health officials initially recommended against the continued habitation of the station about two months ago, but they changed their position after program officials addressed their concerns, Nitza Cintron, NASA’s chief of space medicine, said Thursday.

“Nothing has changed on the station,” Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for Russia’s space authority, Rosaviakosmos, told NTV television Friday.

“There are no problems. The only problem is that the shuttles are not flying. And that has disrupted data processing from the U.S. segment of the station,” he said.

Astronaut Michael Foale, the newest station commander, told an orbit-to-Earth news conference Thursday that he and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri were aware of NASA’s objections. But Foale said both felt perfectly safe.