|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Another Six Months on Mir?
By Anatoly Zak
Staff Writer
posted: 06:31 am ET
02 September 1999
|
Another six months on MirDespite perceptions that the space station Mir's mission is over, RKK Energia, the company operating Mir, still has high hopes about the future of the orbital facility. According to Energia spokesman Sergei Gromov, another crew might spend as much as half a year aboard Mir, if the crew only has a chance to get off the ground. Previously, it was thought that a new crew, if any, would make only a short visit to Mir in February or March 2000 to prepare the station for its final descent. However, Energia is contemplating a longer visit, since the Soyuz spacecraft that brings cosmonauts to and from Mir is regarded as remaining safe during a 6-month period docked at the station. Gromov admitted that sending a new expedition to Mir would mean a conflict in the production schedule of the Soyuz spacecraft, which delivers crews to both Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). Energia is a prime contractor responsible for manufacturing Soyuz and its derivative, the Progress cargo ship. If the company goes ahead with its plans to send one Soyuz and one Progress to Mir in the spring of 2000, it won't be able to meet the deadline for building another Soyuz to deliver the first long-term crew of ISS later that year. Gromov hinted that Energia would like to see a delay in the International Space Station project in order to accommodate its Mir plans. "We are currently waiting for the latest developments in the ISS, to see if delays will happen elsewhere in the project, solving our production situation," Gromov said. Since Mir and the ISS orbit on opposite sides of the Earth, Russian mission control shouldn't have any problem managing the two manned spacecraft at the same time. According to Gromov, Mir is in good shape and under control. Even without pressure from the ISS project, Energia will have a hard time financing any future trip to Mir. The Russian government has virtually withdrawn its financial support of the program, and efforts to raise private funds for Mir operations have been futile. Yet Energia officials hope that broad public support of Mir might cause the Russian government to change its position in the near future. NASA has long pressured the Russian Space Agency to abandon Mir and concentrate its scarce resources on the International Space Station.
|
|
|
|
|
