Tim Furniss/LONDON Frederic Castel/PARIS
NASA is considering providing funding to Russia in exchange for hardware to ensure that the Russian service module for the International Space Station (ISS) makes its 12 November launch.
Any shortfall in payments by the Russian Government could delay further the launch of the $320 million module Zvezda and the 16-country ISS project. Russia's economic crisis has held up the module for 19 months. Space officials expect the Russians to ask for more funding, to avoid any more delays.
About 600 engineers from Moscow are engaged in six months of tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, leading to launch of the module. "We have realised the significance of the timeframe of the service module launch, but the only problem we could have is financial," says Vladimir Branietz, Russian ISS segment chief of avionics and software .
Daniel Goldin, NASA administrator, says that Russia's funding is "better than last year, but they may need more". US funds might have to be provided in exchange for hardware. "We may need to buy some very specific things from the Russians, and we are going to explore this possibility," he says. Last year, NASA purchased future research time and stowage space in the Russian segments of the station and provided $60 million to the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency to help it complete the service module.
Meanwhile, Russia is training a special cosmonaut crew to fly a "rescue" mission to the ISS, should the docking of the Zvezda service module fail. If it fails to dock, or only partially docks, to the Zarya module, which is attached to the US Unity node module in orbit, cosmonauts Gennadi Padalka and Nikolai Budarin will be launched aboard a Soyuz booster from Baikonur.
Their Soyuz TM will be docked to the Zarya's multiple docking adaptor and will manoeuvre the Zvezda towards the Zarya, using the Tora rendezvous radar system.
If the Zvezda launch fails, or the module is delayed to around February next year, NASA will call its Interim Control Module into service and launch the Naval Research Laboratory-built module to dock to the ISS to provide attitude control services, allowing assembly missions to continue next year.
Meanwhile, Boeing has delivered a vital ISS component to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Called the S-Zero Truss, it will form part of what will eventually be the ISS' girder-like framed crossbeam. The S-Zero will be the first starboard truss of the ISS.
Source: Flight International
