Published: 7/24/1998

The Cosmonauts Training Centre in the Stellar Townlet near Moscow is planning to begin several training sessions for the Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mori, Chief of the Cosmonauts Training Centre, Colonel-General Pyotr Klimuk has said. The contract for training the Japanese astronaut has not yet been signed, but all the problems have been thrashed out, Klimuk noted. He preferred not to disclose the price of the future contract, but said that it was profitable for Russia. Mori will not do the complete programme, which takes an average of six months - his training will last only one month. Klimuk stressed that Japan needed to train an astronaut for future flights to the international space station, which is being built by Russia, the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. Mori is one of three current Japanese cosmonauts: he flew on an American shuttle in 1991, while the Japanese woman-astronaut, Chiaki Mukai, flew in 1994. One more Japanese astronaut - journalist Toiohiro Akiyama - flew to the Russian Mir spacelab in 1990. The first talks on space co-operation were held early in April 1998, five years after the conclusion of the bilateral, inter-governmental agreement on the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. As a result, three areas of space co-operation were determined: long-distance sounding of the Earth, experiments on sputniks, and work on board the future international space station. Other Russian and Japanese organisations are also establishing bilateral contracts. For instance, the Russian Institute for Medico-Biological Problems, jointly with the Japanese Space Agency and some universities, is carrying out several projects. Russian experts are providing Japanese colleagues with analytic reviews on space medicine and biology, in conformity with earlier concluded contracts. Lengthy orbital expeditions are impossible without such reviews.(AS798.1) (VZ)

Article ID: 225