Tim Furniss/LONDON
MirCorp says it has received private commitments to enable it to plan another manned mission to the Mir space station in September. The announcement follows the docking with the station by Soyuz TM30 on 6 April.
Crewed by Sergei Zaletin and Alexander Kaleri, TM30 was the first flight to the previously abandoned station for 223 days. The cosmonauts boarded the station, without needing to wear oxygen masks after it became obvious that a leak on Mir was not as serious as expected.
The company, which helped to finance the 45-day Soyuz TM30 mission and the launch of an unmanned Progress tanker, with an investment believed to be worth $20 million, holds the lease agreement for the commercial operation of Mir.
The lease agreement is with RSC Energia - which has a 60% stake - and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. MirCorp investors hold the remaining 40% stake in the venture. It appears unlikely that Mir will be de-orbited this summer. It could continue in orbit until 2001.
A crew for the September flight is being trained, says Yuri Semenov, the director of RSC Energia, but if the mission cannot be funded, the TM30 crew will leave the space station on autopilot and return to Earth.
Whatever happens, Semenov says, an agreement has been made to keep the station operational or in operational readiness until the end of the year.
Semenov also attempted to allay fears about Russia's commitment to the International Space Station, saying Energia will meet its obligations "in full and exactly on schedule".
The Zvezda service module for the International Space Station is set to be launched in July.
The Soyuz TM September mission to Mir, which will include the delivery of hardware to enable the establishment of the "first-ever Internet portal in space", will be funded with investment from Internet and telecommunications entrepreneur Dr Chirinjeev Kathuria and the venture capital company Gold & Appel. The internet portal will carry data content as well as live images of the Earth from space.
Jeffrey Mamber, president of MirCorp, says he expects that short term revenue will come from the "positioning of Mir as a consumer product", with involvement from the entertainment and media sector, foreign missions to the station, aerospace research projects, satellite assembly and repair and industrial production.
"Building a business case depends to a great extent on public perception of Mir which has been seen as a dying space station", says Andrew Eddy, business development vice president at MirCorp.
MirCorp seeks non-traditional customers and has signed the William Morris Agency to promote media and entertainment possibilities.
Source: Flight International
