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NASA struggles to finish space station with Russians
In this report:
April 18, 1997
- Navy ICM satellite could be used
- NASA wants $200 million more to finish it
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 10:43 p.m. EDT (0243 GMT)From Correspondent John Holliman
ATLANTA (CNN) -- The United States is about to decide whether a long-awaited vision of an international space station will become reality. The problem is Russia.
(1M/27 sec. QuickTime movie)
NASA animation of proposed space station
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration convinced Congress years ago to give the Russians hundreds of millions in U.S. tax dollars to build vital parts of the space station.
Russia completed the first section, and U.S. contractors in Alabama have finished the second. But the vital third section, which is known as the service module, is a year behind schedule and getting further behind each day.
The Russians are to build it as well, but at the moment it is an empty shell in a Russian factory. There is no money to pay the workers, so the project languishes.
There is some sentiment in this country to be done with the Russians and complete the project here.
Navy ICM satellite could be used
The Navy has a satellite called the interim control module, or ICM, that could be used as a substitute for the Russian service module. But it won't be ready to fly before late next year, and it would cost more than the Russian version.
Despite the difficulties with Russia, NASA wants to keep it in the program.
"They double the volume," says Wilbur Trafton, NASA's assistant administrator. "They bring Soyuz and Progress vehicles for crew supply and transfer. They've been in this business as long as we have."
There is also a diplomatic angle to having the Russians as major partners.
"The only reason we've been doing the space station for the past four years is for the foreign policy involvement of the Russians," says John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.
"If you take the Russians out of the picture, we lose the space station and jeopardize the entire space program."
NASA wants $200 million more to finish it
NASA wants Congress to spend another $200 million on the station, $40 million of it in Russia. All of the money would come from money appropriated for space shuttle operations. But there is opposition.
The chairman of the House Science Committee, Jim Sensenbrenner, has blasted NASA for trusting the Russians in the first place. Others in Congress say that without the Russians, there would be no station at all.
Related stories:
- Supplies, repair kits reach Mir - Apr. 8, 1997
- Russia launches supply rocket for Mir - April 6, 1997
- Orbiting Russian, U.S. spacecrafts beset by glitches - April 5, 1997
- Space station crew waits for supply ship - April 5, 1997
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