Article: SPACE PROGRAM'S CACHET FADES \ RUSSIA STRUGGLES FOR COSMONAUT RECRUITS.(News)

Byline: Associated Press

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan -- Ivan Pozdayev and his classmates at the International Space School in this Russian military enclave ignite a model rocket made from Coca-Cola bottles and grin as it soars high over the tree tops.

The 12-year-old frowns, though, when asked if he wants to be a cosmonaut. A rocket scientist, then? He shrugs, "Maybe."

Even here in Baikonur - a city created out of Kazakhstan's barren steppe in the 1950s to be the secret heart of the Soviet space program - convincing young Russians to pursue a career in the underfunded and struggling space program is not an easy task.

It is a pressing one: ...

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