In the midst of the harshest criticism yet from NASA, Russian space officials said they were working to launch the Zvezda module, a critical component of the International Space Station (ISS) in June, almost two months earlier than previously planned.
The Zvezda module, which provides living quarters for the ISS crews and critical systems for its orbit correction and life support, has been grounded by the Proton rocket failure in October, leaving the $60 billion dollar project in limbo.
On Thursday, NASA administrator
.The Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviacosmos, confirmed the fact that plans have been made to launch Zvezda in June 2000.
Vechaslav Mikhailechenko, Rosaviacosmos spokesman, said that the Zvezda launch date has been discussed on February 1 in the telephone conversation between his agency director Uriy Koptev and NASA administrator Daniel Goldin.
According to the transcript of the conversation, which Mikhailechenko reviewed, Goldin raised doubts in Russia's ability to provide the Progress cargo ships and Soyuz transport spacecraft for the ISS, while simultaneously supporting the Mir space station.
Officially, the Russian decision to move the Zvezda's launch date to June was dictated by unfavorable lighting conditions in July and August for the docking operations between the service module and the rest of the ISS. Russian ground controllers reportedly wanted the docking to take place in the daylight, when TV cameras could be used to assist in final maneuvers.
Both spacecraft will be unmanned during the rendezvous.
The political climate surrounding the ISS
In his conversation with the press Thursday, Goldin accused Russia of dragging its feet and hinted that the country could face expulsion from the program
Goldin put forward an ultimatum of sorts to Russia to launch the Zvezda module by the end of August. NASA also made a decision to launch its own Interim Control Module(ICM), which could serve as a partial substitution to Zvezda. The ICM launch date will depend on the Russian's ability to orbit Zvezda.
Russian reaction to these developments has been cautious so far. Mikhailechenko said that despite its political undercurrent, the decision to launch ICM has a technical sense anyway, especially in case Zvezda is lost in an accident, such as a launch failure.
In the past, Rosaviacosmos warned that Russian defiance of U.S. pressure to deorbit Mir could strain and already soured relationship between the two space agencies.
Ironically, NASA's efforts to get their Russian counterparts to scrap Mir, combined with the noisy anti-Mir campaign in the American media and entertainment industry, only fueled the determination of Russian lawmakers to allocate money specifically for Mir operations.
"There is unhealthy attitude toward Mir in the U.S.," the head of Mission Control in Korolev, Victor Blagov said last week.
NASA itself has long been criticized, mostly by Republican members of Congress, for allowing Russian participation in the project.
Ironically, NASA's invitation to Russia to join the ISS project was initiated in 1984 only after almost decade-long delays, cost overruns and numerous budget cuts imposed by the Congress that, by 1993, had left the fate of the American space agency's station project in doubt.
Russia is now around two years behind schedule with the delivery of their service module. Goldin admitted on Thursday that U.S. components of the ISS are behind schedule as well. He said that NASA can offer no advice to Russia in overcoming its rocket problems, since all of its own major launch vehicles were plagued with failures in the past.
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