Space Shuttle Columbia/ STS90 returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 2 May after a 15 day 21h international Spacelab research mission.
The Neurolab was dedicated to research the activity of the brain in weightlessness and involved a menagerie of animals and reptiles, many of which died during the flight either of natural causes or under the knife.
The next mission, the STS91/ Discovery, is scheduled for launch on the 2 June to fly the last scheduled Shuttle Mir Mission, to collect NASA astronaut Andrew Thomas from the Russian station. The STS91 crew includes Russian space director and former cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin.
After that mission, the STS95/ Discovery is not scheduled until October, and will be followed by the STS93/Columbia in December.
The long gaps between launches has been created by delays to flights to assemble the International Space Station (ISS). NASA had been considering an August reflight of the Neurolab, but has rejected the option.
The latest indications from NASA and the Russian Space Agency are that the first ISS component, the Russian Control Module will be delayed to October-November and the first Shuttle ISS flight, the STS887/ Endeavour, could be pushed to January 1999, over a year later than planned when its crew was selected in 1996. The STS88 will secure the attachment Node 1, called the Unity, to the Control Module.
Russia says that the third ISS component, the Service Module, has been delayed further into 1999. Daniel Goldin, NASA's administrator told Congress on 6 May that he made a mistake in inviting Russia to build this module, but it was still "net gain for the USA" in having Russia involved.
ISS directors will meet on 31 May, when they will review the programme and decide a new launch and assembly schedule.
Despite the delays, NASA remains confident about the future of the ISS, however, and is expected to announce soon the selection of a 50-strong astronaut group. This will include 10 foreigners, to meet the requirement to have at least 135 active astronauts for the ISS and other Shuttle missions, either on technical support assignments or training for regular ISS assembly and other missions, and for long duration stays on the ISS. Russia has also appointed 15 new cosmonauts to its team at Star City.
Russia is developing a new Soyuz TMA manned craft, with US financial assistance, which will make its first flight on the third manned launch to the ISS. Two TMAs, docked permanently to the ISS, will provide an emergency return capability.
Source: Flight International
