Russian spacecraft set for Saturday launch

Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Apr 6: A Russian rocket, due to take a US space tourist into orbit this week, rolled across the empty steppe towards its launch pad in Kazakhstan.

The Soviet-designed Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft will blast off tomorrow at 2331 hrs (local time) carrying US software wizard Charles Simonyi and Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov to the International Space Station.

The rocket was taken from its assembly station at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at dawn and pulled by rail to its launch pad which has changed little since Yuri Gagarin lifted off from the site in 1961 to become the first man in space.

Officials, cosmonauts' friends and reporters watched from an observation post as the Soyuz was put in a vertical position against a bleak morning sky.

''I've been here twice before. It's amazing and impressive that we can get this close to it,'' said Walter Cunningham, a US Apollo 7 astronaut who had come to Baikonur to watch the launch yesterday.

After putting it in an upright position, engineers used two gantries to lock the 30-tonne rocket into place. It will be filled with oxygen and kerosene today.

More than 40 years since Gagarin's blast-off, Russia is making a profit by sending amateur astronauts like Simonyi into orbit.

Simonyi, a Hungarian-born American businessman who helped develop Microsoft software, paid 25 million dollars for the 11-day trip.

''The best thing is that there have been no unexpected developments. The technology is reliable,'' said Sergei Krikalyov, a Russian cosmonaut who has travelled to space six times.

''Simonyi is ready. Of course he is nervous a bit but that's normal,'' Krikalyov said as he watched the roll-out.

Simonyi spent several months preparing for the trip, undergoing physical training and learning Russian at a Soviet-era training centre known as Star City near Moscow.

The three will reach the International Space Station on Monday after two days in the cramped interior of the rocket.

''They will get into the Soyuz two and a half hours before the launch to prepare themselves,'' said Nikolai Sevastianov, head of the Russian space company RKK Energia. ''And once they lift off, they will reach orbit in about 530 seconds.''

Reuters