MOSCOW A new satellite launching site in Russia's Far East likely will remain unused for the rest of the year due to a lack of foreign partners, a news agency reported Sunday. The Svobodny Cosmodrome was opened in March 1997 on the site of a former strategic missile base in the Amur River region near the Chinese border. It was intended to handle large numbers of commercial satellite launches.

But Alexander Sukhadolsky, Svobodny's technical director, said that two satellite launches that had been scheduled for this year had to be put off since the owners couldn't produce the satellites in time. He said that the launches of the Swedish satellite Odin and the American Early Bird-2 would be rescheduled for next year, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. Both were to have been put into orbit by START-1 conversion booster rockets.

Only two satellites were launched from Svobodny last year: a Russian military satellite in March 1997, and the U.S. Early Bird-1 in December. Russia's space program has been struggling due to the loss of large Soviet-era subsidies, and officials have sought to raise revenues by launching commercial satellites. Russia launched 48 commercial satellites last year, 18 on behalf of U.S. firms.

In addition to the American satellites, the Russians also sent up satellites for China, Germany and Luxembourg. (AP)