For 10 days, the second Belgian astronaut will get to the International Space Station [ISS] on board the brand new Russian Soyuz TMA-1 space ship. 
	
	
 On Thursday [29 November] the Belgian Government formally committed itself, vis-a-vis its Russian and European partners (the European Space Agency [ESA]), to pay Frank De Winne's ticket into space. The highway to the stars is looking radiant for the Belgian "cosmonaut." 
	
	
 The formal agreement regarding Frank De Winne's flight with the Russians was signed in Brussels on Thursday by Charles Picque, the Minister for Science Policy, and his government commissioner Yvan Ylieff. 
	
	
 The document, a letter sent to both the ESA (European Space Agency, to which Frank De Winne currently reports) and the Russian Rosaviacosmos space agency, guaranteed the payment by Belgium of the expenses tied to this space trip. So on 4 November 2002, that is to say, in a little less than one year, the second Belgian to reach space will take off from the Baikonor cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board a brand new Soyuz space ship: the TMA-1. It is a ship that is more modern and bigger than the current Soyuzes. 
	
	
 On it Frank De Winne will serve as the on-board engineer. So he will be the second most qualified crew member on board, behind the on-board comander, who still needs to be appointed by the Russian space authorities. This appointment is not expected for a few weeks. So, if that should prove necessary, De Winne will be able to personally pilot the space ship. This is a first on a "TMA," which attests to the confidence the Russian and European partners have put in him. 
	
	
 An example? In Brussels on Wednesday [28 November], the French astronaut Claudie Haignere, who had just completed a flight in space together with the Russians that in every way was identical to the one scheduled for De Winne, could not find enough praise for our fellow citizen, with whom she trained for several months in Moscow. 
	
	
 "Frank worked at Star City with much intensity. In several weeks, he learned the indispensable bases of the Russian language. He is making appreciable efforts to meet the other foreign cosmonauts who are in training there and share his experiences. His dynamism is an asset. People there are really unanimous about him," she told us. 
	
	
 "This assessment confirms us in our choices," a delighted Ylieff said. 
	
	
 Some Particularly Financial Choices 
	
	
 As is known, Frank De Winne's taxi flight lasting about 10 days comes with a price tax: some 600 million [Belgian] francs (15.5 million euros). This is an amount that Belgian yesterday pledged to pay to Russia. An initial segment of 2.5 million euros (Frank's training costs) will reportedly be paid in the next few days. 
	
	
 Several avenues have been explored to collect the overall amount. The latest, and also undoubtedly the most logical, is internal to the SSTC, the federal Scientific, Technical, and Cultural Services, which, in particular, manage the country's space budgets. 
	
	
 The sum in question will come from the SSTC's space budgets and be deducted in several years (two or three). The SSTC's overall budget will not suffer from this. Nor will the space sector's in particular. 
	
	
 Cancellation Insurance 
	
	
 "Budgets will remain constant," explained Eric Beka, the SSTC's secretary general. The sums obtained will result from the assignment of a portion of the space budget to this mission (and its many related scientific fall-outs) rather than to other optional programs. 
	
	
 In a word, De Winne's ticket into space has been financed. And his "parachute" too. "Since there is no other Belgian astronaut at the ESA who is capable of replacing Frank De Winne for this mission if it suddenly proved impossible for him to carry it out, we are also expecting to take out 'travel insurance' for our 'cosmonaut,'" Yvan Ylieff also said. "This should insure that we can recover the sums involved, that in the prospect of another space trip." One million euros will be devoted to this "cancellation" insurance. 
	
	
 About 10 years ago, Dirk Frimout was the first Belgian astronaut to go into earth orbit. That was with the US Atlantis shuttle. In a few weeks the second Belgian to go up there will don a Russian cosmonaut's space suit. It will be a mission that will be rich in promises. De Winne will thus qualify technically in space piloting. He will become one of the best elements in the corps of European astronauts. In addition, he will carry the projects of Belgian scientists and industrialists active in the space sector far. As Picque emphasized, "for many years, each franc invested by Belgium in space has brought in three francs." Who said that space investments were not interesting?