[FPSPACE] Afanasyev and Kuzhelnaya Question

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/29/00 9:47:17 AM Central Standard Time, 
barnesy@asiaonline.net writes:

<< What happened to the Afanasyev/Kuzhelnaya crew to ISS?
  The last information I got was that they would fly the first Soyuz exchange
 mission in April with Tokarev and Kozeyev flying the same type of mission in
 October. Where do Musabayev, Baturin  and Tito fit into all of this? >>

So far we only have a statement on gazeta.ru attributed to Rosaviakosmos 
sources that Tito will be on the next Soyuz to ISS, with the crew he had been 
training with for the Mir mission. Since Musabayev and Baturin speak pretty 
good English, and apparently Afanasyev and Kuzhelnaya don't, Tito's presence 
may have been the primary motivation. But we're still waiting for 
confirmation. The shift would also put Afanasyev in command of another 
mission with a French cosmonaut, he's done that before.