Russian spaceship maker fights bankruptcy

MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) Russia's main producer of spacecraft is to be put into emergency administration to fight off bankruptcy, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the company's chief as saying today.

The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation is the main Russian contractor for the International Space Station and also makes satellites and rockets. It was unclear if Russia's space programme would be affected.

''We intend to introduce emergency administration for the corporation, because the financial idealism that existed here has led not to flights to the moon, but to bankruptcy,'' Interfax quoted company chairman Vitaly Lopota as saying.

In April, Nikolai Sevastianov, who headed Energia at the time, told the Vedomosti daily the company was working on a new space transport system that could eventually lead to the industrial development of the moon.

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