Space Program for Sale

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But that will require money, which will be hard to squeeze from the anemic Russian budget. Clearly, foreign capital is needed. For several years Moscow has been raising funds by selling visits to Mir, at $10 million to $15 million a pop, to countries such as Japan and England. Several nations, including India, have paid to launch satellites on Russian rockets. Now virtually every branch of the space infrastructure, once financed by the Soviet military, has trade representatives in the U.S.

But their frustration is growing at America's failure to conclude any deals. Last year, for example, Pentagon officials said they were ready to spend $10 million on a Topaz-2 space reactor, but Deputy Defense Secretary Atwood is said to have blocked the sale. He has also reportedly forbidden Pentagon officials to travel to Russia without approval from him or Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. NASA's attempts to approach the Russians, meanwhile, have been stalled by the State Department.

Officially the U.S. government neither favors nor frowns on purchasing space technology from the Russians, but the lack of a clear-cut policy has enabled hard-liners to hold sway. Shutting out the Russians, though, may prove more dangerous than propping them up. Secretary of State James Baker announced in January that the U.S. would contribute $25 million toward an institute in Moscow that will employ Russian nuclear scientists and presumably keep them from hiring out to outlaw states such as Libya and Iraq. The same logic should apply to space scientists and hardware, which -- as the hard-liners themselves maintain -- could pose a threat as well.

A tough policy could also push the Russians into the arms of the European Space Agency, already competing with the U.S. for commercial launch services. The Europeans now control 60% of that business. Says a congressional space analyst: "If they were to add the Russians' heavy-lift capabilities, it would make the U.S. a second-rate power in space."

An explicit policy on purchases of Russian space expertise, services and hardware is clearly overdue, and Congress is putting pressure on the Administration to devise one. At week's end Atwood went to Capitol Hill to discuss the matter, and gave signs of relenting on some deals. The Defense Department's purchase of the Topaz, in fact, may be approved as early as this week. Says a senior congressional source: "Several of the top people are now aware they have to act."