Tim Furniss/LONDON
Russia's Progress M1-3 unmanned cargo tanker docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on 9 August as Russian space officials once again sounded alarm bells about future funding for the space station.
The first Progress to dock with the ISS will be unloaded by the crew of STS 106 Atlantis early next month in preparation for the arrival of the first Expedition Crew in early October.
Progress M1-3 carried 2.4t of life support equipment, fuel, clothes, safety equipment and personal hygiene items.
The Progress is the first of seven planned craft to be launched to the ISS over the next year. Its on-board propellants will be used to boost the altitude of the ISS's orbit.
The M1 series are uprated versions of the Progress tanker, containing eight propellant tanks rather than four, with the option of four of the tanks to be used as cargo containers.
Meanwhile, Anatoli Kiselev, the director general of Khrunichev, manufacturer of the Zvezda service module which docked with the ISS last month, has revealed that prior to the Zvezda launch the Russian Government had frozen funding for other ISS work to ensure the launch could go ahead.
The government had been "extremely nervous" about the much-delayed launch that had held up work on the ISS.
"Now we have managed our task, despite unbelievably difficult financial conditions, we hope funds will start flowing," says Kiselev.
Khrunichev's ISS work comprises a Unified Docking Module which is to be launched next year, an uprated Progress tanker craft fleet, as well as a proposed joint commercial module developed with Boeing. The docking module will have six ports, one for docking with the Zvezda service module, a central port to receive Progress, Soyuz and other craft, and four ports for research modules.
The new Progress cargo ship will be able to carry 10t to the ISS, compared with the 2.3t by the present M1 craft. It will be based on the design of the Zarya control module with "interesting design solutions... including cargo strapped to the outside", says Kiselev. The new cargo ship will cost $500 million to develop and launch.
Yuri Semenov, director general of the Energia company that builds the boosters which launch ISS components, says the company's spacecraft for the ISS are not paid for by the state.
The Proton launch of Zvezda and the launch of the Soyuz-boosted Progress M1-3 tanker on 6 August were provided as "goodwill gestures" on the part of Energia, with no support from the government, he says.
Semenov says that the Soyuz launches of the first Expedition Crew to the ISS in September and the Progress M1-4 tanker in October should be launched as planned.
Source: Flight International
