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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Iraq war protesters make selves heard in Chicago and elsewhere on anniversary of invasion

Kate Caleal has two friends who are fighting in Iraq. She wants them to come home now.

So the Rogers Park resident joined about 2,200 other anti-war demonstrators Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, at a rally in Federal Plaza and a subsequent march through downtown Chicago calling for an end to a conflict that has gone on longer than World War II.

“We as individuals have power. I’m exhibiting that power. [Government officials] don’t speak for us,” said Caleal, 22, as she held up a tree branch attached to a pizza box with “Stop the slaughter” and “You’re killing my brothers and sisters” written on it. “We need more of this, people standing up and speaking out against this,” she said.
The downtown protest Wednesday was one of many across the Chicago area and the nation against and in support of U.S. military involvement in Iraq. On Wednesday morning, a group gathered outside Soldier Field to show support for U.S. troops in Iraq. Another group of anti-war protesters held an evening candlelight vigil in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.

In Washington, at least 30 anti-war protesters were arrested Wednesday as they attempted to block access to Internal Revenue Service offices.

Wednesday night’s rally and march is part of an effort to pressure politicians to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, said Andy Thayer, a member of one of the rally’s chief organizers, Chicago’s 5th Year Anti-War Coalition.

“The main thing is that the politicians have failed to stop this war,” said Thayer, 47. “We need a very strong militant domestic peace movement.”

He said the war in Iraq is similar to the Vietnam War because both wars were “built on lies.”

There were no disturbances or arrests at the downtown march.

At the Wednesday morning rally in Soldier Field, Ald. James Balcer (11th) stood in front of a military monument at the north end of Soldier Field and announced plans to petition the City Council for a memorial to honor American soldiers who serve in the war on terrorism.

More than 140 soldiers from Illinois have died in this war, said Balcer, a former Marine who served in Vietnam. Hundreds of Chicago police officers, firefighters and residents have been deployed.

This has nothing to do with politics, he added.

“We’re here to support the troops,” Balcer said. “This memorial will be important.”

Balcer will present the proposed resolution at the next City Council meeting April 9. If it is approved, Balcer expects a committee to be selected to determine the design and location of the memorial.

Standing behind Balcer were a handful of supporters with military ties. Standing tall in the middle of the group was a soldier who had lost an eye.

Jim Frazier, a member of the mayor’s Memorial Day committee, talked about his son’s dedication to the military. Jacob Frazier, an Air Force staff sergeant, died in Afghanistan in March 2003. Jacob Frazier, 24, was serving as a tactical air controller embedded with the Green Beret army unit.

He wanted to hunt down Osama bin Laden personally and died doing what he loved, Frazier said.

“I’m very honored, and I choose to honor our troops, men and women who take an oath and know they will possibly go in harms way,” Frazier said. “They do so because they believe in the mission.”

In Washington, protesters outside the IRS said they don’t believe liberating Iraq should be a U.S. mission.

Ashalyn Sims, 20, a Howard University student, said that she had been concerned about the United States going to war with Iraq from the start. At the time, both of her parents were in the armed services, and Sims was living on a military base in Hungary. But she said she only started protesting the war in the last year.

Sims said that her mother was supportive of Sims’ involvement in anti-war protests. “These are my mom’s Army pants,” Sims said, showing off the green camouflage she was wearing.

Organizers of the protest targeted the IRS because the agency allocates money to the Pentagon to pay for the war, they said.