Russia's ISS Segment Never to Be Used in Iraq War

The Russian segment of the International Space Station "will never be used for the needs of the on-going military conflict in the Persian gulf area," the RIA Novosti correspondent quotes Sergei Gorbunov as saying in an interview on Friday. Gorbunov is the press secretary of the Russian Airspace Agency (Rosaviakosmos).

The International Space Station "is a purely civilian facility and the on-going military actions cannot affect its operation," he said.

Gorbunov voiced the hope that the American ISS segment "will not be used for the military ends, either." "For that the Pentagon has enough military satellites of its own," noted the Rosaviakosmos representative.

As RIA Novosti has learnt from other sources, the American defense establishment has recently put a stand-by reconnaissance satellite into a point in the geostationary orbit just above Iraq to cover the theater of war. The satellite's photo and TV information is relayed by a military group of nine satellites.