At a time when American manned missions have been suspended because of design flaws in the space shuttle, Russian authorities want to spin past the moon with a humble vehicle now serving as NASA's space taxi.

Not only are Russian officials planning their nation's first lunar fly-by, according to Russian media reports, but they hope to make the mission at least partly self-financing by selling a seat aboard the venerable Soyuz spacecraft for $100 million.

Where the shuttle is like a winged, spacious space SUV, Russia's Soyuz is an insect-like three-seater compact based on a 1960s design. The American craft can alight delicately on a runway, while Soyuz plunks to Earth tethered to parachutes.

But the Russian spacecraft is cheap, lightweight and adaptable. It has been used in recent years as the International Space Station's lifeboat, and, for more than two years after the Columbia disaster in February 2003, it has ferried skeleton crews to the station to keep it operating.

The idea of retooling the Soviet-era vehicle for a simple moon mission, some European and American space experts say, is more than just pie in the sky.

"It is an interesting and clever scenario," wrote Dr. Roger M. Bonnet, former chief scientist for the European Space Agency and executive director of the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland.

"I think that the mission would not need a drastic modification of the present (Soyuz) hardware," he wrote in an e-mail interview. Even if some design changes are needed, he said, "This is not insurmountable given the rapidity (with which) the Russians develop new things."

The newspaper Izvestia first broke news of the planned Russian moon mission Tuesday, the day of the shuttle Discovery's launch. The news came before scientists realized that Discovery's external fuel tank had shed a piece of foam -- in a grim reminder of the incident that led to the fiery breakup of Columbia on its return from orbit in February 2003.

Full Story