Russia losing ground in space exploration: Expert

Moscow, June 11 (UNI) Russia was gradually losing ground in space exploration with each passing year, a top Russian space expert said today.

''Russia has stopped space studies involving its space stations. Today foreign spacecraft carry Russian equipment or Russia helps to launch foreign scientific satellites,'' Grigory Chernyavsky, head of the Centre for Monitoring Earth from Space, told Interfax news agency.

''The Russian programmes of missions in terrestrial space are ineffective,'' he noted.

''Russia has developed mainly into a taxi driver for launching foreign spacecraft and taking space tourists into orbit,'' Mr Chernyavsky said, who is also a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

UNI