Oct 15 1996
From The Space Library
Russia postponed the scheduled launch of Progress M-33, a cargo vehicle loaded with supplies for the two Russian cosmonauts and the one American astronaut aboard the Mir space station. The delay highlighted once again the severe budget crisis of the Russian Space Agency. A lack of funding held up the production of the rocket booster needed to send the craft into space. The crew on Mir had sufficient supplies aboard the space station, but missed the visit from Earth. Besides supplying food, regular planned visits provided needed contact for the space dwellers. The postponement was the fourth time in 1996 that Russia had delayed the scheduled launch to Mir because of problems paying for the production of Soyuz-U boosters. Reuters announced that because of the delay, a group of laboratory monkeys, already wired to monitor the effects of space travel, would die without ever leaving Earth.
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