Tim Furniss/LONDON
NASA has set 20 November as the date for the International Space Station (ISS) project finally to get airborne. Six years later than planned when the project was initiated in 1984, Russia's Zarya control module will be the first section launched into space aboard a Proton booster.
The lift-off will be followed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS88 on 3 December, carrying the US Node 1 model, the Unity, which will be docked to the Zarya.
Russia's Service Module, however, will not be launched to the Space Station until July 1999 - a delay from April - and the first crew to operate on the orbital base will therefore not now arrive until January 2000 at the earliest.
Russia will lease the use of its Service Module to NASA for $60 million, with a further $40 million later, to provide cash to assist the country to fulfill its ISS commitments. As a result, NASA is paying Russia for the Zarya - which was built under a separate $200 million contract - as well as the Service Module. The latter was originally meant to have been supplied as part of the Russian commitment to the project.
The US space agency is to ask US Congress for an additional $1.2 billion on top of about $2 billion budgeted to keep the ISS programme on course in 1998. With NASA unable to rule out further Russian difficulties and its relations with Congress continuing to deteriorate, however, winning approval for extra funds is not guaranteed.
A further $500 million is planned to help Russia to supply Progress and Soyuz vehicles, while the remaining funds will be used to modify the three ISS Space Shuttle orbiters, the Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour, to carry additional propellants to maintain the ISS' orbit.
In addition to the Service Module, there will be four ISS Shuttle missions and one Russian Progress refuelling flight in 1999.
The following year will see 15 ISS missions, including delivery of the NASA Laboratory Module and other equipment, and three Soyuz and six Progress missions.
The newly announced schedule casts doubt on the planned completion of the ISS in 2002-3 and it appears likely that 2004 is now a more realistic target.
Source: Flight International
