NASA'S POLITICAL FUTURE AT STAKE WASHINGTON (States News Service) If Russias service
module can latch smoothly onto the International Space Station (ISS) this week, NASA will have crossed a major hurdle in one of its biggest and most prolonged missions.But on Capitol Hill, where frustration runs deep over NASAs reliance on Russia for the station, celebration is likely to be muted.
The launch of the bus-sized living quarters called Zvezda (Russian for "star"), slated for Wednesday, July 12, comes as Congress is embroiled in an election-year debate over how to manage the program's costs while keeping Russia in the program.
If the service module fails, the fallout would be disastrous for NASA, which still is bruised from back-to-back failures of its
Mars missions last year. 
The Zvezda service module is scheduled to be delivered to the International Space Station.
Even if all goes well, congressional aides and NASA watchers say, lawmakers will continue to worry about American reliance on Russia for years to come. The Russians, for instance, still need to supply a steady stream of all-important crew modules and supply rockets each year for the ISS.
"The future of
American-Russian space cooperation is riding on this launch," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), chairman of the House Science Committees Space and Aeronautics panel, told SPACE.com. "Weve already bent over backward to give the Russians every benefit of the doubt."The Zvezda launch is shaping up as a test of political support for the $60 billion ISS, for which NASA is requesting $2.1 billion in next year's budget.
Lately, support has worn thin among some in Congress who argue that Russias foot-dragging has cost U.S. taxpayers $5 billion and delayed the program by three years.
NASA says it has kept station costs under control and that Russia isn't entirely to blame. There have been simultaneous delays with NASA's own station pieces, notably the Boeing-built U.S. laboratory module.
In any event, the station is a major sticking point in a six-month-long debate over a bill laying out NASA spending through 2003.
In a House-Senate conference late last month, Republican lawmakers led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading critic of the station, insisted on the need to cap federal spending on the station at $25 billion.
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That's $1 billion above the price tag estimated by the Clinton administration but about $35 billion below the $60 billion that the General Accounting Office estimates it will cost to finish the ISS.
A congressional spending cap could threaten NASAs contingency plans if Zvezda were to fail to dock safely at the station because the space agency might not have the money to build suitable replacements.
The conference committee is debating how to "hold the Russians accountable for promises made and commitments not kept," said Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for the House Science Committee.
Some Hill watchers argue, however, that support for the space station remains steady at least enough to defeat a recent effort by perennial critic Rep. Tim Roemer. The Indiana Republican has tried in vain to kill the station and use its funds to pay down the national debt.
"Congress has demonstrated again and again that it continues to strongly support the station," said Marcia Smith, a space analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
But, she added, "there are many more launches and pieces of hardware that Russia is to provide. It is certainly the beginning of the story, not the end."
Rohrabacher, for one, is hopeful that a successful docking of the service module would renew cooperation with Russia in space exploration.
"The symbolism, as well as the business sense of working with the Russians still shine through as an opportunity even though this has been really rough," he said.
"The future of American-Russian space cooperation is riding on this launch. We've already bent over backward to give the Russians every benefit of the doubt."
But the stations list of problems has grown to the point that lawmakers are seeking to recover $1.3 billion that NASA spent on goods and services in Russia for backup purposes.
In the heat of an election year, Republicans who have long blamed the Clinton administration for giving the Russians leverage over the station now are attacking Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore.
"If anything happens to the Russian module it will completely come back to haunt him," said Eric Stallmer, president of the Space Transportation Association. "Republicans will use it against him."
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Gore is to blame for pandering to Russia because of his agreements with former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Florida) whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center.
As House Science Committee Chairman James
Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) sees it, "bringing Russia into the program was a political decision made by the President and Vice President."NASA's original argument that Russia's help on the station would cut costs, save time and keep Russian engineers from selling their services to Iraq or Libya backfired when Moscow last spring decided to keep the Mir space station in orbit.
The move angered both NASA and Congress. It led NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin to
warn this spring that if the Russian government spent money intended for ISS on Mir, that would constitute a "breach of relations" between the two nations.NASA had promised Congress in 1993 that Russia would not be in the critical path of station construction because the United States would build backup parts for any Russian shortfalls.
But that thinking was unrealistic, said Norm Thagard, the first American astronaut to fly to Mir and now an engineering professor at Florida State University.
"I think there was some -- if not overt -- then some tacit winks and nods that this is what we were signing up to," Thagard said.
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