Dec 15, 1999 - 08:48 AM

Official: Russian Mission Control Ready for Y2K

The Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Mission Control center will not be affected by the year 2000 computer glitch, a top space official said Wednesday.

Computers at Mission Control, which helps monitor the still-unfinished International Space Station, were upgraded and checked for any Y2K glitches in early December, Chief Engineer Mikhail Pronin told the ITAR-Tass news agency.

"No Y2K troubles are expected," he said.

Pronin said Mission Control would have more workers on the overnight shift Dec. 31 to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Controllers of Russia's Mir space station also have said they won't be hit by any Y2K-related failures.

No one knows exactly what Y2K glitches - the result of unfixed older computers and embedded circuits mistaking 2000 for 1900 - might do in Russia, but western observers say the country has been far behind in tackling the problem and can expect power and heating failures.

Russia has issued repeated assurances that it will get through the new year without any problems, and says there is no chance that its nuclear power plants or missile systems will be affected.

Meanwhile, Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom said Wednesday that it, too, was fully prepared for Y2K.

In a meeting in Kassel, Germany, Gazprom Foreign Relations Chief Nikolai Bely said gas supplies to Europe would flow uninterrupted through the new year, the Interfax news agency reported.

Gazprom provides Europe with about a third of its gas. Gazprom officials have said the company has been working on Y2K for several years and will be ready in time.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

Senator Bennett on Cnn:

"My investigator(s) came back from Russia and said nothing will work over there. But Those people are used to nothing working"

Thats right folks----A U.S. Senator said this!!!!

-- d----- (dciinc@aol.com), December 15, 1999.

More Russia.

The story below... IS NOT GOOD! Another disconnect.

Diane

See also...

y2k issues jeopardize 3 neclear plants

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 00210R

The Times: World News:Chernobyl 'is millennial time bomb

Weak links in the chain reaction

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 15, 1999.