Jun 21 1996
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
Russian officials announced that the necessity of cutting costs at the Russian Space Agency had caused a 40-day delay in returning cosmonauts Yuri I. Onufrienko and Yury V. Usachev from the Mir space station to Earth. Russian budget cuts had slowed the production of the Soyuz booster rockets needed to fuel a return trip for the cosmonauts. Because Mir was deteriorating, Russia could not leave it without a crew. This was the second time that financial and technical difficulties had led Russia to delay the return of the two men. The episode signaled a deepening crisis for the Russian space program, the United States' key partner in building the International Space Station (ISS).
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