Insisting that they would not be deterred by political uncertainty, the United States and Russia formally joined as partners Thursday on an international space station and announced that the first Russian astronaut would fly in the space shuttle Discovery in six weeks.
While both sides had agreed to the basic space accord, the agreement Thursday formally ended decades of rivalry between Moscow and Washington.Russia also accepted an invitation to join the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada in building a revamped space station. An orbiting space laboratory involving all the partners could be operating by 2001.
Vice President Al Gore and Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin also signed agreements on economic development, high-technology ventures, the environment and oil and gas exploration. Some pacts were for small but possibly fruitful projects, like plans to build as many as 25 privately financed gas stations in Russia.
Gore and Chernomyrdin said at a news conference that the 17 agreements were an important sign of Washington's commitment to Russia after parliamentary elections on Sunday in which a faction that opposes President Boris N. Yeltsin's political and economic reforms did far better than expected.
"The Russian government is committed to reform," Gore said. "President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin have reaffirmed the need to press forward."
Chernomyrdin closed the news conference with an appeal to Americans to take home the message that the two countries should put behind them the years of mutual mistrust.