The Russian company building a crucial solar-energy platform for its segment of the International Space Station (ISS) has asked one of the power plant's potential beneficiaries to pay for the juice.
Sources within Russia's space industry say that RKK Energia is currently in negotiations with the Washington D.C.-based Spacehab, Inc. to sell the energy supplied by its yet-to-be-built Scientific and Power Platform to the American firm's Enterprise module.
The power platform is a giant truss structure bristling with solar panels and radiators. Known by its Russian abbreviation NEP, the component was originally set to be launched on the space shuttle sometime between June and August 2002, but its production fell at least a year behind schedule after funding by the Russian government was suspended last year.
Ironically, RKK Energia is the prime contractor for Enterprise's construction. Spacehab announced that its module would be used for a variety of commercial activities, including broadcasting live images from orbit.
Enterprise itself is not a sure thing. Spacehab's decision last year to build the section was met with skepticism at NASA, as well as by RKK Energia's rival company Khrunichev. Reportedly, Spacehab's module is in competition for a berth on the ISS with a Khrunichev-built component.
The International Space Station’s crew quarters rocketing into orbit.
Moscow-based Khrunichev space center is considering using the contested port on the station to dock a sibling of the Zarya control module -- the original element of the station, currently in orbit. Built with U.S. support as a backup to the original Zarya, the completed section needs only minor modifications to be launched, while the Spacehab's module exists largely on paper.
However, sources familiar with the Russian aerospace industry said that Spacehab and RKK Energia have already secured the approval of the Russian government to dock the Enterprise at the designated location.
Linda Billings, Director of Communications at Spacehab, said the company had no comment on the situation at this point.
Searching for funds
This is not the first time Russian companies have tried to raise money from private sources to pay their part of the multibillion-dollar project. Moscow has already offered for sale resources aboard its yet-to-be-built ISS science modules.
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Russia is also
negotiating with NASA the potential sale of $100 million-worth of hardware and services. Most of this money would go for the purchase of a Soyuz spacecraft, which is to serve as a lifeboat for the station. Around $21 million would pay for Russian support in software development, purchase of spacewalking hardware and various training and testing hardware.
The ISS, as it will look when completed.
The negotiations on the Soyuz purchase stalled pending long-delayed launch of the Zvezda service module, but are expected to resume following the module's docking with the ISS.
Cabs and lorries
As the long-delayed Russia's Zvezda service module, the most critical component of the International Space Station, finally reached orbit, the country's space industry faces a multitude of other challenges in the multinational project.
Although none of the future Russian contributions to the ISS program are as critical as Zvezda, the country's hardware, if ever completed, would almost double the internal volume of the outpost and comprise a significant part of the station's potential.
For years to come, the partners in the ISS project will continue depend on Russia for their Progress and Soyuz vehicles, which will serve as re-supply
tankers and lifeboats, respectively, for the station. RKK Energia, based in Korolev, builds Progress cargo ships and Soyuz transport spacecraft for this purpose. The Progress will haul the propellants needed to boost the station's ever-degrading orbit, while Soyuz will stay attached to the ISS, whenever people inhabit the station.
Because RKK Energia needs the same type of craft to maintain its recently revived
Mir space station, NASA expressed concerns about the company's capability to turn out enough vehicles for both programs.
Cosmonauts open the door to Mir earlier this year.
This year, the ISS will need either one or two Soyuz spacecraft. If the automatic docking between Zvezda and the ISS fails this month, RKK Energia will have to sacrifice a Soyuz to send up a rescue crew to conduct a manual docking between Zvezda and the ISS. If the automatic docking is successful, that craft can be used to carry the first residential crew to the station in October. Two to three Progress spacecraft will also be necessary this year, depending on how fast the station's orbit degrades by the end of the year.
In 2001, the ISS program is expected to utilize two Soyuz spacecraft and as many as six Progress tankers.
RKK Energia officials repeatedly said that their company had enough production power for both Mir and the ISS, as long as they are paid for. However, Mir is financed by Western millionaires, while the Russian contribution to the ISS is a responsibility of the cash-strapped federal government. To make matters worse, RKK Energia officials privately complained that the Russian government still owes the company as much as 350 million rubles for Mir operations since 1998, while the station was still on the "federal payroll."
How RKK Energia accountants are going to determine where future federal funds are going to be allocated remains to be seen.
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