Toilet row starts Cold War in space

Russia and the United States may have overcome the Cold War on Earth but things have really got icy between astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station, 350 km above the ground.
A Russian cosmonaut has complained that bitterness started building up after the ISS operations went commercial in 2005 and has now reached a point where occupants from the two countries could not even share amenities, including toilets.
Gennady Padalka, an air force colonel, told Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper he is no longer allowed to use a US toilet as well as a US exercise bike. He said the lack of sharing was lowering the crew’s morale.
Padalaka told the Russian daily that for many years since his first space mission in 1998, there were no problems and he and his American colleagues worked in harmony. In 2005, space missions were put on a commercial footing and Moscow started billing Washington for sending its astronauts into space, he said. Other nations responded in kind, he added.
“What is going on has an adverse effect on our work, said the 50-year-old a veteran of two space missions who is the station’s new commander working with US flight engineer Michael R Barratt.
Before he lifted off to join the ISS crew on Thursday, Padalka had asked whether he could use a US gym to stay fit.
“They told me: ‘Yes, you can.’ Then they said no,” Novaya Gazeta quoted him as saying. “Then they hold consultations and they approve it again. And now, right before the flight, it turns out again that the answer is negative.
Regulations now required US and Russian cosmonauts to eat their own rations, he added. “They also recommend us to only use national toilets,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Cosmonauts are above the ongoing squabble, no matter what officials decide,’’ he told the newspaper. “It’s politicians and bureaucrats who can’t reach agreement, not us.
Padalka was also quoted as criticizing the Russian portion of the station, saying it looks backward compared to other sections. “It’s built on technologies dating back to the mid-1980s, at the very latest,” he said. “We are lagging seven to 30 years back in various space technologies.”
Russia’s space program fell on hard times after the Soviet collapse and struggled to stay afloat by selling seats on its Soyuz spacecraft to well-heeled space tourists. During the oil-fuelled economic boom its budget increased, but it is again heading for tough times as Russia tries to weather its worst financial crisis since 1998.