Tim Furniss/LONDON
The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition Crew 1 could be forced to abandon the station and return to Earth in their Soyuz TM spacecraft if another malfunction occurs, NASA warns. The space agency's concern follows a series of equipment failures that have hit the station and comes as the next Space Shuttle mission to the ISS faces a launch delay.
Plans are already in place to send spare parts for the station's air conditioner and carbon dioxide removal system on the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS 98 which is to be launched on 18 January with its major payload, the US laboratory Module, Destiny, or on a Russian Progress M tanker craft set for a February launch.
The electrical power equipment on the Russian-made air conditioning system has malfunctioned and if the carbon dioxide removal system breaks down, the crew will be forced to use canisters of lithium hydroxide which will last up to 14 days.
The Russian-made carbon dioxide equipment has a broken fan system and an electrical problem on the back-up fan assembly.
The discovery of an eroded cable on the aft segment of a solid rocket booster (SRB) on the stacked Space Shuttle Atlantis assembly at the Kennedy Space Center, however, may cause a delay to the launch of the STS 98 mission. If the cable cannot be repaired without destacking the assembly, the delay could be considerable. The eroded electrical cable is in the reusable cable and connector assembly in the booster separation system in the lower external tank attach ring on the left hand SRB. NASA engineers are inspecting other SRB ordnance cables.
A faulty wire in one of the two explosive detonation cartridges in the similar aft SRB attach ring separation system caused the failure of the cartridge during the STS 97 Endeavour mission on 30 November. A back-up standard initiator cartridge fired successfully. If both systems detonators had failed, the SRB could have remained partially attached during the separation, causing the system to go out of control and break apart under the aerodynamic forces.
The wiring faults could indicate an inherent fault in the Shuttle system, similar to eroded electrical harnesses discovered under the payload bay floors of all Space Shuttle orbiters after an inspection of Columbia after its STS 93 mission in July 1999.
• The French space agency CNES is investing $500 million in the ISS between 2001-2004 in addition to its participation through its membership of the European Space Agency. The CNES involvement will enable France to send national astronauts to the ISS to operate experiments.
Source: Flight International
