ESA's future as an important influence on the world of space flight could be in jeopardy.
Tim Furniss/LONDON
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus space-station programme is over 11 years old, but no flight hardware has yet been built. The political and bureaucratic wranglings among the key member states are growing fierce. Germany and Italy are complaining about costs, while France is becoming protective about her interests.
A nationalistic trend is developing in some areas of the European space programme. Germany has booked a Chinese launcher instead of the largely French-manufactured Ariane. France has threatened to pull out of the Columbus project and go it alone, and Italy has been pursuing its own relationship with NASA.
It is little wonder that ESA is mounting a major campaign to save its planned participation in the Alpha international space station.
The final decision is likely to be made by the Council of Ministers of ESA's member states in Toulouse, in October, about whether there will be a Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) and an Ariane 5 Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV), providing logistics services to the Alpha. The space station is, therefore, expected to be a big talking point at Le Bourget this year, even if it does not dominate the exhibits. ESA director general Jean-Marie Luton's traditional press breakfast, on 10 June, is likely to be well attended.
In October, ministers will be asked to commit ESA to spending about $4.6 billion until 2002 on the COF and the ATV. What irks some members is that ESA will have to pay about $400 million a year to use the space station for the possible 15-year life span of the orbital base. Up until now, this has been a hidden factor, and only recently come fully into the equation.
At the moment, the plan is that Russia will kick off the Alpha project in mid-1997, with the launch of an electrical and propulsion space tug/module called the FGB. NASA will make its first space station assembly Shuttle launch in December 1997. Man-tended operations may be possible in 1998, and full-manned capability will be reached the following year.
Only by 2002, however, will ESA and the other partners, Japan and Canada, be aboard. That is a long wait - 18 years after the inception of the programme.
Not only will ESA's future standing as a high-profile, influential space agency be in the balance at the ministerial meeting in October, but so will over $2 billion-worth of business for European space companies involved in the Columbus, ATV and related projects. Do members want to be part of the greatest space undertaking since the Moon landings or not? On the other hand, the question still remains - will it happen anyway?
The Council of Minister's decision in October could have a major influence on NASA's ability to sell the overall space station programme to the US Congress. NASA started the ball rolling in 1984 and has struggled year after year for money, constantly redefining and redesigning the space station to match increasingly limited budgets - and spending billions in the process. The long delays - the station should have been operational in 1994 - has frustrated ESA and the other partners, placing enormous pressure on their budgets.
Budget cuts and NASA's prevarications have already made casualties of an ESA resource module, a manned-tended free flier, the manned Hermes space-plane and, more recently, its proposed replacement, a manned capsule called the Crew Transfer Vehicle. The size of the COF has been almost halved. It will weigh about 10t, measure 8.5m long, and will be flown aboard an Ariane 5/ATV combination. An originally proposed space-station element, the polar platform, is part of ESA's Earth-observation programme. Italy is providing its own pressurised logistics modules to the station.
Keeping its options open, ESA originally decided to form a partnership with Russia to develop its manned space flight experience, and has flown its first astronaut to the Mir 1 space station. Another, the German Thomas Rieter, is scheduled to make a 135-day flight, with a space walk starting in August. ESA is also working with Russia on the development of a robot arm, called the ERA (originally part of the Hermes project), and a data-management system, both of which will be part of the Alpha station, too.
RUSSIA TO THE RESCUE
With the future of NASA's space station in the balance, rescue came in the form of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which opened the door to another element of co-operation. With money very tight, Russia needed the USA for its own space station plans to survive. Similarly, the USA needed Russia. The international partnership seemed to be intact. The last thing NASA needs now is for it to fall apart somewhere else, which is why the US space agency is getting nervous about ESA's predicament.
Another factor, which will influence any decision by the USA, or by ESA, is the Space Shuttle. With so much depending on the Shuttle to construct - in about 20 missions - and maintain the space station, a major accident, putting one of only four operational orbiters out of business, could be the final straw.
The forthcoming first, of a planned seven, Shuttle/Mir docking and joint operations by US and Russian astronauts in June, will also be a major influence if all goes as planned. Russia's political stability and long-term commitment to the project will also be watched carefully.
Source: Flight International
