European space agency set to play greater role in ISS project

On March 9, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which will dock with the International Space Station (ISS) and open a new page in the troubled station’s history.

Yet Russia, the country that has probably done more than any other to keep the ISS project alive, is considering calling it a day.

Russia has sunk much material and emotional investment into the ISS. The Russian public are accustomed to their role as the world’s space pioneers, and Russia has for decades led the way in long-duration manned orbital missions, first in the space station Mir, and later in the ISS. Moreover, everyone is aware of the Herculean efforts of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) to sustain the ISS and fly in relief crews after the 2003 Columbia disaster put a freeze on shuttle flights.

However, those emotional ties eventually have to give way to practical considerations, such as statistics, kilowatt/hours, communications channels, etc.

It would be an understatement to say that the Russian contribution to the ISS project is declining. Right now, the station has eight modules, including only three Russian-made elements, i.e. Zarya, Zvezda and the Pirs docking compartment. Top managers at the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, the main Russian ISS-project contractor, say that those three modules generate only 5 kWt, instead of the required 50 kWt, and that the station’s Russian segment therefore lacks power.

Two power-generating modules are planned, but will only be launched in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Roskosmos currently has to pay $2,000 per kWt to the United States and to negotiate mutual clearing schemes. Energia CEO Vitaly Lopota said the American and Russian segments would generate 100 and 7 kWt by 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Until recently, Russia flew NASA and ESA astronauts to the ISS. But its transport monopoly would soon be broken if the ATV project succeeds. Although the ATV is still undergoing tests, it is clear that the EU wants to fly its own manned missions to the ISS.

NASA’s feelings about the European achievements appear to vary between vexation and relief. In his March 7 article “NASA Wary of Relying on Russia” Washington Post Staff Writer Marc Kaufman said: “In 2 1/2 years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station. The three space shuttles will be retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.”

“For five years or more, the United States will be dependent on the technology of others to reach the station. To complicate things further, the only nation now capable of flying humans to the station is Russia,” the article said.

“NASA Administrator Michael Griffin calls the situation his ‘greatest regret and greatest concern.’ … NASA’s budget calls for spending $2.6 billion for transportation to the space station between fiscal 2009 and 2013. As it stands now, much of that would go to the Russians,” the article said.

The U.S. Senate considers this to be the worst possible scenario.

It seems that NASA, which did not believe that the ATV project would succeed, is now lamenting the longtime discrimination against the ESA as an ISS partner. It should be noted in this connection that the ESA’s Columbus laboratory was delivered to Cape Canaveral in May 2006, but did not lift off aboard the shuttle Atlantis until this February.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO of Arianespace, a public-private company manufacturing, operating and marketing Ariane 5 launch vehicles, said in an interview last week that the company would like to play a larger role in supplying the ISS. Le Gall said the EU is scheduled to decide in November whether to enter the field of human spaceflight and become a full-fledged participant in the ISS project.

The United States is well aware of the EU’s space ambitions and has to choose a partner for near-Earth space exploration in the short- and mid-term. Nor does the ESA conceal the fact that it is prepared for closer cooperation with NASA. “We believe we can be an important part of the solution for the space station and counterbalance to the Russians, if we are given a chance,” Le Gall said.
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Astronauts Gear Up for 4th Spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts on the orbiting shuttle-station complex geared up Thursday for the fourth spacewalk of their mission, a high-profile test of a repair technique they hope they never have to use.

Two of the crew members were to float outside Thursday night to squirt salmon-colored goo into the crevices of extra space shuttle thermal tiles that were deliberately damaged for the test. NASA wants to see how well the caulking gun and patching material work, in case they’re ever needed for a real repair.

The tools were developed in the wake of the 2003 Columbia disaster. The shuttle was destroyed and all seven astronauts were killed during re-entry because of a hole in the wing.

“Having this in our bag of tricks is really going to be helpful,” astronaut Robert Behnken said Wednesday night.

Behnken and Michael Foreman will work on sample tiles that were carried up in Endeavour’s payload bay.

The experiment was supposed to be conducted during a shuttle flight last fall but was scrapped because of urgent repairs needed for a ripped solar wing at the international space station.

NASA would like the test results before Atlantis blasts off at the end of August on one last repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronauts on that mission will not be able to use the space station as a refuge if their shuttle is damaged during launch; they won’t be in the same orbit.

Another space shuttle will be on the launch pad ready to fly to the rescue if necessary. Nonetheless, NASA wants the Hubble crew to have as many shuttle repair methods available as possible.

A fifth spacewalk is planned for Saturday night, two days before Endeavour undocks from the orbiting complex following a nearly two-week visit.

The shuttle astronauts spent the first half of their mission putting together the space station’s new Canadian robot, Dextre, and installing a Japanese storage compartment that will be followed by Japan’s enormous Kibo lab in May.

Japan’s prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, called with congratulations Wednesday night and was treated to a televised tour of the space station’s new Japanese compartment, courtesy of Japanese astronaut Takao Doi.

Garret Reisman, the space station’s newest resident, said he was amazed by the size of the space station when he arrived last week. He noted that when the shuttle was approaching the station, many on the crew were reminded of the 1968 science-fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“All we needed was `The Blue Danube’ playing in the background and it would have been just like the movie,” Reisman said in a series of broadcast interviews.

Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died Wednesday in Sri Lanka.