TIM FURNISS / LONDON
US agency adjusts budget plan to boost research potential, while European agency revamps marketing
NASA is adjusting its 2003 budget to implement a new Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP) in a bid to ensure the International Space Station (ISS) is properly financed and to boost its scientific research potential.
The change comes as the European Space Agency (ESA) hires a commercial branding agency to market the on-board capabilities of the ISS to increase interest in scientific activities at the station.
The change of focus follows a lack of interest from the scientific community in using the station as a laboratory as the reduced ISS crew limits the research time available.
The new ISTP comprises three major programmes - Space Shuttle, Orbital Space Plane and Next Generation Launch Technology. NASA will continue to fly the Space Shuttle with required upgrades for the foreseeable future. Work on a proposed second-generation reusable launch vehicle (RLV) has been put on the backburner, with activities limited to research, in a major change to the agency's earlier Space Launch Initiative (SLI).
NASA will push ahead with the development of a complementary seven-crew orbital spaceplane launched on an expendable booster to act as an ISS taxi within 10 years. This will have the potential to act as the permanent crew rescue vehicle (CRV).
In the meantime, NASA will need to order two Russian Soyuz TMA Interim CRVs to be constantly attached to the ISS if the station is to have a six-person crew, rather than the present three. The Shuttle's flight rate may also be increased to speed up completion of the ISS.
These changes will be reflected in NASA's five-year budget plan in its 2003 budget request, soon to be sent to US Congress.
Meanwhile, ESA has appointed Brussels-based Ogilvy Brand Relations to develop a branding and communications strategy for the ISS to boost commercial demand to use the services of its sophisticated laboratories. ESA hopes to develop a commercial package acceptable to industry, because until direct links between space experiments and industry are proven, the ISS will continue to be seen as a unique but expensive place for research.
Meanwhile, the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS 113 mission to the ISS on 11 November was delayed until 18 November at the earliest after an oxygen leak was discovered in the orbiter's payload bay during countdown on Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The leak was thought to come from beneath the midbody of the payload bay in one of two systems that feed oxygen into the crew cabin and into crew pressure suits.
Source: Flight International
