NASA administrator Daniel Goldin has admitted that the first launches to assemble the International Space Station (ISS) will be delayed by eight months, to June 1998. The admission confirmed a unilateral Russian Space Agency (RSA) announcement of the delay.
RSA director Yuri Koptev says that it "-is entirely Russia's fault", but that funding for the project has all but dried up.
A Russian energy module will be ready for launch in November, to be followed in December by the first US element, the Node 1. The Russian service module, which was to have been launched in April 1998, to allow permanent manned capability, has been delayed until at least December 1998, however, mainly because of budget problems. Goldin thinks that the delay may stretch into 1999.
Goldin concedes that a delay would be best, although a final decision will not be confirmed until later this month.
Source: Flight International
