Tim Furniss/LONDON
With the first elements of the International Space Station (ISS) due to be launched in a little under 12 months, the USA and Russia, the two leading members of the international consortium building the Station, have begun to reveal progress the initial modules scheduled to be lifted into space in June and July 1998.
Russia's Functional Energy Block (FGB) will be launched first, on 30 June, 1998, and will be followed on 3 July by the $280 million US Node 1, which was unveiled at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 26 June.
The Node 1, the interface between the first two Russian modules and later elements of the station, will be launched on Shuttle mission STS88. These will be followed by the Russian Service Module launch in December 1998, allowing the ISS to be manned by its first crew in January 1999 (Flight International, 11-17 June).
With cash starting to come through to manufacturers from five banks as part of an 800 billion roubles ($140 million) state guarantee, the pace of work on the Russian modules is starting to pick up. The FGB - built with the aid of $120 million of NASA funding - is being prepared by the Russian Khrunichev company.
An extra $35 million has also been provided by the US space agency to allow Khrunichev to modify the module to accommodate the docking of manned Soyuz and unmanned Progress spacecraft. To offset the increased weight, the fuel load will be reduced by 200kg to 5,500kg. Russia is paying $140 million to launch the FGB on a Proton.
Khrunichev moved a prototype Service Module to Energia on 16 June for outfitting with essential electrical systems. After testing, they will be installed on the production Service Module which is due to arrive in August.
Khrunichev is also building a second FGB flight module in case the FGB 1 launch or module fails. There are, however, no spare parts available to build a second Service Module. Should the Service Module be delayed or fail, a US Interim Control Module, being built by NASA as a contingency, will be launched as a replacement.
To reduce the workload on the Energia company, which is producing 18 Progress and Soyuz craft to support the ISS, the Russian Space Agency has ordered from Khrunichev four new Large Cargo Vehicles, which can each carry 10t of payload. The first could be launched on a Proton in 1999.
Source: Flight International
