CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The International Space Station partners are looking beyond their individual financial difficulties to solidify construction plans through 2008 and ensure the Russians can supply Soyuz escape capsules until NASA builds a replacement.
NASA's station program manager, Bill Gerstenmaier, said Monday the international partners agreed to a modified launch schedule for Japanese, European and Canadian components earlier this month. At the same meeting in Houston, the partners discussed the Russians' ability to build more Soyuz spacecraft beyond 2006.
The Russians remain obligated to launch a fresh capsule to the station every six months until April 2006. The partners are negotiating with the Russians to extend that deal.
The partners must rely on the venerable Russian spacecraft, which has been flying since the 1960s, to keep the station functioning.
An example of the dependency is playing out now. The Soyuz parked at the station has been there for six months, which is the longest one of these three-person ships is supposed to stay in space before being replaced.
Russia plans to launch a new Soyuz on a so-called taxi flight Tuesday night. However, a Soyuz rocket carrying a satellite exploded earlier this month. The Soyuz flight was delayed two days, but the Russians have since said the explosion investigation would not cause further delays.
If for some reason the new Soyuz does not launch before the end of the month, Gerstenmaier said the station crew might have to abandon the station using the old Soyuz they currently have.Temporarily, the station would be unstaffed while the partners worked to resolve the problem, he said.
However, such a drastic move is less likely in the short term than the long term. While the Russians have reassured the international partners they will meet their spacecraft commitments through 2006, the contractor that builds the ships has repeatedly said debt and cash flow problems could force it to stop production.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe has said the agency will not purchase more Soyuz from the Russians, but Gerstenmaier suggested the United States and its partners are attempting to find something they could trade the Russians to spur them to resolve whatever problems might prevent delivery of more Soyuz craft.
"We've been discussing some high-level bartering," Gerstenmaier said. But he declined to give specifics of what the countries could offer the Russians in return.
"Obviously, we need the Soyuz rescue vehicle on station," Gerstenmaier said. "That is a critical piece to us. Without the Russian Soyuz there, we'd be in a posture where we could not keep crew permanently on board station. We are working with the Russians through their financial problems."
O'Keefe recently said the agency is considering accelerating development of a crew return or crew transfer vehicle, which might be launched by expendable rockets. However, even the most optimistic estimates say such a vehicle could not be ready to serve as a crew rescue vehicle for the station until 2010, O'Keefe said.
Gerstenmaier said the partners also set the launches for key components going to station through 2008. The Japanese Space Agency needed to delay launch of their Kibo laboratory and centrifuge while the Europeans wanted to launch their Columbus laboratory earlier.
The U.S. plans to finish construction of its currently planned portion of the station, through the installation of Node 2, by 2004. All of the currently planned parts would be on orbit by 2008 under the new plan, Gerstenmaier said.
Meanwhile, because of the one-day Soyuz delay, NASA might launch Endeavour a day later than planned to give the station crew time to adjust their sleep patterns before the shuttle docks. Gerstenmaier said he will officially ask shuttle program managers for a delay at a flight readiness review meeting on Thursday. Currently, Endeavor is slated to launch between midnight and 4 a.m. Nov. 10. Endeavor is sitting on the pad now.
NASA and Russian space program officials prefer gaps between flights, partly because the arrival of crew and cargo vehicles keeps station residents very busy and work days are adjusted to meet the needs of the arriving vehicles' crews.
If all goes as planned, the old Soyuz will leave to take its taxi flight home four to five days before the shuttle arrives. The station crew will then have to adjust its sleep schedule by about 14 hours before the shuttle arrives to match the arriving crew's work schedule. The change would be like a person who works first shift and sleeps from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. suddenly shifting their schedule so they are sleeping from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"We would like to have another day in there to help with the crew sleep shifting so we have a fully-rested crew when the shuttle gets there," Gerstenmaier said.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2002 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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