Alexei Zhiltsov, spokesman for the Khrunichev aerospace factory, said the launch date had been pushed back to May 15 because of problems with the second stage of the Proton rocket.

A design fault in the second stage engine had caused Protons to fail mid-flight in July and October of last year, an investigation into the failures showed.

Zhiltsov said engineers were working to overcome the problem but tests must be conducted ahead of any possible launch of the ISS service module, known as Zvezda, whose construction and launch will cost some 350 million dollars.

The module will provide a home for the cosmonauts using the multi-billion dollar international space station, which has been designed as a state of the art replacement for Russia's ageing Mir orbiter.

Proton will need to get two or three successful satellite launches under its belt before space officials will certify the Russian-designed rocket as ready to lift Zvezda into orbit, Zhiltsov said.

Technical gremlins have forced the postponement of the module's launch before. The 280-million-dollar unit was originally to be launched April 1999, but that date was pushed back to November and then February 2000.

Nevertheless, the fresh delay has enabled specialists to perfect computer systems on Zvezda which had revealed weak points, said Sergei Gromov, spokesman for the Energiya aerospace firm which is closely involved in the project.

The completed Zvezda module is currently in a hangar in the Baikonur space centre in the Kazakhstan steppe, from where it will be launched.

However, the date change could raise problems for the sections of the ISS already in orbit: the Zarya (Dawn) module put into space on November 20, 1998, and the US-manufactured Unity docking module.

Before the launch, specialists said the embryonic space centre comprising the two units would start to fall back to Earth after 500 days -- about 16 months -- unless they were joined by Zvezda.

The service module not only provides living quarters for the space crew but powers the ensemble, keeping it at the required altitude.

Despite the timetable concern, Gromov said Russian space officials were not pressing the panic button.

"We are within the required timeframe for the moment," he said. "The specialists have revised upwards the length of time the first elements can remain in orbit on their own."

When the ISS is completed, some time in 2004, the space station will comprise some 100 pieces, forming a space village where a succession of cosmonauts will conduct experiments in the fields of medicine, physics, Earth and space observation.

NASA's Space Station and Shuttle Portals

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
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