NASAs space station partners learned only in January that as a result of a new White House space exploration agenda the U.S. space agency is scrapping plans to build the Orbital Space Plane, a rocket-launched capsule that could have been ready by 2008 to serve as a crew lifeboat for the orbiting station. With that decision, Russias three-person Soyuz vehicle once again appears to be the prime option for bringing astronauts and cosmonauts back from the station in an emergency.
NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn confirmed that the upcoming Heads of Agency meeting, previously planned for March, has been postponed until June or July. Rahn said the postponement was necessary to allow sufficient time for the partnership to discuss at the lower technical levels the potential implications for ISS that result from the new space exploration vision.
The chiefs of the five space agencies behind the space station program last met as a group in July 2003 in Monterey, Calif. At the meeting, the partners voiced continued support for the space station program despite the assembly delays and logistical burdens brought about by the grounding of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in the wake of the Columbia accident.
Some of the issues the partners must deal with remain virtually unchanged since a December 2002 meeting in Tokyo that yielded an agreement to find ways to make better use of the space station as a science facility. Then, as now, the partners were wrestling with how to keep a crew lifeboat docked at the space station once Russias commitment to supply the program with Soyuz expires.
A 1998 bilateral agreement with the United States obligates Russia to provide a total of 11 Soyuz vehicles that will be docked to the station and serve as crew lifeboats in case an emergency forces the crew to abandon the station and return to Earth.
The eight such vehicle is scheduled to be launched April 18 and transport a new two-person crew to the space station and replace the Soyuz lifeboat already there. Assuming Soyuz continue to launch at six-month intervals, Russia will have launched its final obligatory Soyuz in October 2005. The burden for providing a crew rescue capability for the space station would shift from Russia to the United States six months later -- around April 2006 -- when that final Soyuz would be due to return to Earth to make room for a fresh one.
NASA officials have been arguing that Russia owes its partners at least a slight extension because it has not had to build and launch as many Progress supply ships as expected. Close observers of the program, however, say that Russias obligation to pay for the Soyuz will run out eventually and the United States, which has twice scrapped plans to field a six- or seven-person rescue vehicle, will be on the hook to keep the Soyuz assembly lines rolling.
A U.S. law enacted in 2000 to discourage Russian aerospace firms from helping Iran develop long range missiles could prevent NASA from buying Soyuz directly from their manufacturer, Korolev, Russia-based Rocket Space Corporation Energia or giving the Russian Space and Aviation Agency the funds needed to pay for the vehicles.
At least one U.S. company, Houston-based Spacehab, has offered to serve as an intermediary in a NASA-backed Soyuz deal as a way around the Iran Non-Proliferation Acts restrictions on Russian hardware buys. And some U.S. lawmakers, led by Rep. Nick Lampson of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee, have said they would be willing to support the legislative relief NASA would need to buy Soyuz from Russia.
NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe, testifying before the House Science Committee Feb. 12, told lawmakers that the agency was not seeking exemption from the law at this time.
NASA officials, however, informed their international counterparts at a space station meeting here that same day that the U.S. space agency intends to procure Soyuz vehicles, according to sources. But NASA, these sources said, could not be pinned down on how soon the United States might begin buying Soyuz for the space station.
NASA budget charts obtained by Space News indicate that 2 percent of NASAs aggregate budget through 2020 would be spent on Soyuz and cargo services for the space station. That information is omitted in an otherwise identical budget package released to reporters.
Additionally, NASA talking points and so-called response to query documents stamped for internal use only say NASA expects to acquire Soyuz or other vehicles for crew transport to and from the station after the space shuttle is retired around 2010.
What the documents do not say is how NASA intends to deal with the so-called Soyuz gap the space station program faces once Russia delivers its final Soyuz under the 1998 bilateral agreement. But they do acknowledge that the Iran Non-Proliferation Act could be seen as a barrier to a U.S. Soyuz purchase and allow that legislative relief could be necessary.
We understand the provisions of the Iran Non-Proliferation Act and we will work with Congress to ensure we meet the intent of that act as we implement the vision, the NASA documents read. We will discuss any necessary legislation or legislative changes for the vision with Congress as we proceed.
Meanwhile, NASA is starting to see eye-to-eye with its partners again on the need to increase the crew capacity of space station from three people to six or more. NASAs partners, the Europeans in particular, have never wavered in their insistence that full scientific utilization of the space station requires crews of six or more.
OKeefe has publicly challenged that assumption on numerous occasions since taking the helm of NASA in 2001. But with a new exploration agenda that puts a heavy premium of understanding the long-term health consequences of space flight, NASA is once again discussing the virtues of larger crews.
Michael Kostelnik, NASA deputy associate administrator for the shuttle and space station programs told Space News in Houston that larger crews are in our interest.
It is still in play, and we havent finally agreed to something, Kostelnik. But we need a larger crew aboard to prepare for long-duration human space missions.
SPACE.com Staff Writer contributed to this report from Houston, TX.
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