Russia has warned that time is running out for the USA and its partners to provide funding for additional Soyuz and Progress vehicles needed to support the International Space Station (ISS) while the Space Shuttle remains grounded. Russian space agency (RSA) chief Yuri Koptev says the issue "has to be resolved within a month".
Russian government funding for further vehicles has been discussed, but not agreed, and the space agency is seeking funding from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which has been promised a long-duration flight on the ISS in return for funding. NASA is constrained by legislation barring additional payments unless the USA confirms Russia has not transferred missile technology to Iran in the past year.
The RSA says it must receive funds within a month to start producing the additional Soyuz and Progress spacecraft needed to support the ISS to the end of 2004. The agency has an existing $130 million budget to prepare two Soyuz and three Progress craft to fly this year. A further $85 million is needed to complete production of additional vehicles, Koptev says. It will take at least 14 months to build additional craft and "anything shorter is impossible", he says.
The next Progress M is due for launch in June, with others following in September and January 2004. Up to eight more Progress and Soyuz missions may be required to sustain the ISS and its crew in 2004.
The two-man replacement Crew 7 for the ISS, Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA flight engineer Ed Lu, will be launched aboard Soyuz TMA-2 in May. Both crews will work together on the station for about a week before the current three-man Crew 6 returns in TMA-1, which is already docked at the ISS.
Soyuz TMA-3 will be launched in October with Crew 8 commander Michael Foale and Crew 7's Alexander Kaleri - and ESA's Pedro Duque on a brief visit - leaving Crew 8's Bill McArthur and Valeri Tokarev grounded. A "visiting" Soyuz TMA mission is scheduled for the second quarter of 2004, carrying ESA's Andre Kuipers, but may be delayed.
During evaluations to ensure that two-man crews could operate on the ISS safely and effectively, Crew 6 astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit practised donning and doffing spacewalking suits on their own, to ensure a single crew member could do the job if the other was incapacitated. Normally, a spacewalking astronaut is assisted by another crew member.
Source: Flight International
