The future direction of the European Space Agency will be decided later this month.
Tim Furniss/LONDON
THE SUBJECT DOMINATING THE European Space Agency's (ESA) Council of Ministers meeting in Toulouse, France, on 18-20 October will be the international space station, code-named Alpha - the first internationally manned space project ever undertaken. After two days of political haggling and argument, the question about what part the ESA will play in the Alpha, if any, are expected to be answered. This, and other decisions at Toulouse, will determine the future of the European space industry into the 21st century.
There is a sense of deja vu about this, because every previous Council of Ministers meeting since that in Rome in 1985 has been dominated by debate on the space station, sometimes to the detriment of other programmes. This time, it is make-or-break for the ESA. The agency has to decide either to participate or pull out.
COLD WAR DAYS
In 1985, ESA had the money and political support to propose a four-element participation in NASA's planned international space station, together with Canada and Japan. The space station was to be operational in 1994. ESA also planned a Hermes manned spaceplane and the Ariane 5 launcher.
In those Cold War days, there was still a "space race", and the Soviet Union was planning its own space station.
The picture is now different. There is no longer a space race, but, neither is there an international space station - the project has been constantly delayed and redesigned because US budget cuts. Ironically, Russia has rescued the international programme, and its own cancelled space-station plans, by becoming a leading partner.
To accommodate redesigns and its dwindling budget, ESA has been left with producing one Columbus module, much smaller than the one planned originally, called the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF). This will not join the space station until November 2002 (17 years after the project was launched). The ESA will also produce the newly proposed Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which will provide equipment to the station, using the Ariane 5 launcher, starting in March 2003. The agency also plans to provide microgravity-research equipment for the COF.
NASA's budget allocation for the project seems relatively secure, and the first elements of the space station have already been built. Space construction will begin in November 1997.
The programme's timetable will not allow the ESA to hold fire any longer. Some ESA member countries - the UK included - believe it sensible to put funds elsewhere. The long-delayed station depends too much on Space Shuttles to be built and operated, they say, and a major Shuttle accident could throw the whole project into chaos, critics believe.
The stakes are particularly high for France, Germany and Italy. Germany and Italy are leading the prestigious COF project. France - the main contributor to the Ariane 5 programme - will be the ATV leader. It had earlier lost its major role in the Hermes manned space-plane project when it was cancelled in 1993.
France had hoped to develop an Apollo-capsule-like ESA Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV) as an alternative to the Hermes, to ferry four people to and from the station, relieving pressure on the Shuttle. Russia's Soyuz can do this effectively, (with three crew), and can fill the proposed CTV role of emergency return vehicle.
LACK OF ESA FUNDS
The ESA did not have the funds for both the COF and CTV and opted instead for the COF (for which some hardware has already been developed), as well as retaining the ATV.
ESA now needs to commit $3.6 billion to the space-station project, with $1.8 billion paid between 1996 and 2000. Of this, Germany had committed $780 million, France $520 million and Italy $400 million, with lesser contributions from others, including Belgium and Spain.
Italy has now jeopardised the programme by saying it can only afford to pay $180 million of its originally committed $400 million, and the money will have to be made up largely by France and Germany. Italy still wants to retain the COF work, however. It also has a separate agreement with NASA to supply logistics modules - based on COF technology - and can claim to be involved in the space station anyway.
France's commitment is dependent on the go-ahead for the Ariane 5 Mk2 vehicle and Germany's financial contribution to it. The UK may also contribute to a new Ariane 5 model. Another key issue is that ESA will be committing its members to paying $300 million a year to maintain the space station once it is operational after 2002.
Source: Flight International
