US Congressman Calls for Closer Co-operation with Russia in Space Programme

The Head of the space and aeronautics subcommittee of the science committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Dana Rohrabacher, considers closer co-operation between the USA and Russia in the space programme to be necessary. He voiced this opinion in an exclusive interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday.

The Congressman noted that at the moment, after the accident of the Columbia shuttle, the Americans were in a situation when they need close co-operation with their Russian friends. Rohrabacher stressed that the USA should have carried out such co-operation long before the September 11 events and long before the Columbia accident.

He specially noted that Russia had immense possibilities in the field of space technologies, since it had invested huge sums of money in them for many years. As Rohrabacher said, the United States ought to view this [co-operation] as a way of Russia's entry into the world market so that it could become part of this market. Instead, the USA engaged in protecting its economic interests from competitors.

The Congressman stressed that in his view it was a wrong decision, and it did not prevent Russia from penetrating the world market with its own space technologies. In this connection, Rohrabacher pointed out that many mistakes in relations with Russia had been made by the United States during the first decade of Russia's advancement towards freedom.

He expressed the hope that the USA would manage to compensate for this during the next decade.