David W. Garrett
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                              
June 18, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-8400)                                                                              
Embargoed until
                                                                                                                          
6:00 p.m. EDT

RELEASE:   92-91

NASA RATIFIES FIRST CONTRACT WITH RUSSIAN SPACE PROGRAM

     NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and Yuri Koptev, the 
Director General of the Russian Space Agency, today formally 
ratified the first contract between NASA and a Russian aerospace 
firm, NPO-Energia.  The contract is for the study of applications 
of Russian space technology to the Space Station Freedom program.

     The contract is for an initial period of 1 year with a value 
of $1 million and will initially cover three general areas:

     o  The possible use of the Russian Soyuz TM manned 
spacecraft and the Progress transport spacecraft in the Space 
Station Freedom program.  Of immediate NASA interest is the 
potential applicability of the Soyuz craft as an interim Assured 
Crew Return Vehicle.

     o  The possible use of a Russian automated rendezvous and 
docking system known as APAS.  This system is now used with the 
Russian MIR space station currently in orbit and has the 
potential of serving as a universal docking system.

     o  The possible use of the MIR space station for long 
lead-time life sciences experiments in support of the Space 
Station Freedom program.

     The formal contract ratification follows a series of 
technical meetings and negotiations over the past 3 months 
between NASA officials and their Russian counterparts at 
NPO-Energia.

     Located in a Moscow suburb known as Kaliningrad, NPO-Energia 
is a quasi-independent company of some 30,000 employees 
responsible for design and development of many of the key 
elements of the Russian manned space program.  Its current 
Director is Yuri Semenov, the chief designer of the Russian Buran 
space shuttle.

                             -end-