Mir flight extended; ISS assembly delayed

Published: 2/2/2000

On 12th January, the General Council of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (RAKA) decided to send a new expedition to the Mir space station, now orbiting in an automatic (unmanned mode). Two days earlier, the council of chief designers assessed four differing scenarios prepared by RKK Energia on the future of Mir. The cheapest of the four, ($7m), called for a flight of a Progress automatic supply vehicle (Progress M1, serial no. 250), which would begin on 31st January. The Progress would dock to the Mir in early February, in order to push it from orbit into the depths of the Pacific ocean at the end of March. The second scenario, valued at $40m, also involved the Progress M1 flight, which would be followed by that of a Soyuz TM crew vehicle (serial no. 204) with two cosmonauts on board (Expedition 28). The cosmonauts would stay on Mir for 45-90 days. They would monitor the space station, reaching the critical altitude of 220 km and, at that point, leave it to allow the ground flight control centre to generate a command for Mir ditching. The third scenario, valued at $100m, called for Expedition 28 to last for 180 days. The cosmonauts would not only monitor Mir"s movement into lower orbits, but also carry out research work and scientific experiments. Two launches of automatic supply vehicles would be needed: one on 15th May (the Progress M1, serial no. 252) and on 15th August (Progress M, serial no.244). The cosmonauts would land on 29th October, with Mir falling into ocean waters on 2nd November. The fourth and most expensive ($250m) option was to prolong the Mir flight up to February 2001. There would be two manned expeditions on Soyuz TM crew vehicles, serial no. 204 and 206, with the second launch on 22nd October. Expendables would be delivered by the Progress M1 serial no.256 on 20th December. Having assessed all the four, the Council of chief designers chose the second proposal, with the rider that provision should be made to transfer seamlessly to options 3 or 4, should funding emerge for the continuation of the Mir flight. In November 1998, the State Duma approved the 2000 state budget, including a separate allowance of 1.5 billion rubles for the continuation of the Mir flight. Interestingly, this was made despite RAKA objections. Then, a foreign sponsor for the Mir emerged. At the end of December, RKK Energia signed an agreement with Gold & Appel on a technological experiment aboard the station, for which the US company agreed to pay $20m. By January, RKK Energia already received $7m. Details of the deal are not yet known, but it is likely that the Gold & Appel will claim state guarantees for its investments. Gold & Appel is registered on Virgin Islands and is known as an investor in telecommunications and high technologies. In particular, it invested in Aspirit Telecom (UK) and US-based Teleco Communications Group. The company"s most ambitious project so far has been development of the Roton reusable space vehicle with rotational takeoff and landing. In the case of Mir, Gold & Appel will provide funding via the international non-governmental organization for space exploration. Gold & Appel ordered an experiment on Mir involving a tow cable system. Such systems with cable length from a few metres up to hundreds of kilometers are considered very promising for conducting various experiments in space (off the space vehicle, i.e. out the zone of its gravitational, electrical and other influence). Such experiments, with a 100-km Italian cable have been twice unsuccessfully attempted on the US Shuttle. RKK Energia proposed an experiment using a 3-km long cable system. This would be delivered to the Mir aboard the Progress M1 (serial number 250) on 31st January and marked by another transaction into RKK Energia account. Walt Anderson from Gold & Appel said that for the $20m investment in the Mir flight, the company expects to get an outcome valued from $200m to $1 billion. There are a number of problems for this plan to materialise, not least of which is the deplorable technical condition of the space station. The station continues to leak air. Micro leaks were discovered in August 1999 by Expedition 27. Their origins have not yet been located. However, the rate of the leak has been decreasing. In August, its intensity was 2.4 mm of mercury a day. Now, it is 1.0 mm. This means that, by April, the station"s atmospheric parameters will continue to be sufficient to support human life. As a result, the council of chief designers offered to begin a new 45-day Mir expedition on 30th March 2000. Members of Expedition 28 are Lieutenant-Colonel Sergei Zaletin (Commander) and Aleksandr Kaleri (Onboard Engineer). Their back-up team is Lieutenant Salidjan Sharipov and Pavel Vinogradov. RKK Energia claims that the air leak problem is “solvable". Deputy Flight Manager, Victor Blagoev, said that it should be enough just to “add some compressed air from high-pressure balloons" once every six months. He added that the existing balloon capacity stored on the station is “quite enough for that". As a precaution, additional air balloons will be delivered aboard the Progress M1 serial no. 250, together with fuel for the Mir"s orbit correction engines. The decision by the council has, however, put RAKA into a difficult situation. Yuri Koptev, Head of the agency, has repeatedly said that Mir should be ditched during 2000. His view is based not so much on the station"s technical deterioration, but on the desire to implement Russia"s International Space Station (ISS) project. This standpoint is one taken under pressure from the USA. NASA, tired with the repeated delays in completing the Russian-built ISS modules, clearly indicated that the continuation of the Mir flight undermined the pace of progress on the ISS project. It was this US pressure that persuaded the Russian government to issue a decree cancelling Mir funding from the state budget, with effect from the end of August 1999. In contrast, Yuri Semeyonov, Head of RKK Energia, has stated that “RKK Energia does not have any intention to ditch the Mir space station in March 2000. For us, the station means jobs and additional funding from conducting experiments in the interests of foreign countries and housing their astronauts aboard the station". The debate reached its height during parliamentary discussions on the 2000 state budget. Koptev advocated the extra provision for the ISS and space communications projects, at the expense of Mir. However, the house voted for Rbs 2.9 billion budget for RAKA and continuation of the Mir mission. The advent of a foreign investor for Mir is highly significant. While cash from the Russian state budget is virtual, Gold & Appel has actually come up with cash. The latter fact changed the whole thing. The governmental order on the cancellation of state funding for the Mir states that flight may be extended in the event of finding non-budgetary sources for the station. Furthermore, in accordance with the Law on federal space programmes, the decision on whether to send a new expedition to the station or to ditch it can be made only by the RAKA general council. This latest decision by the council has again compromised Koptev. On 12th January, he announced that: “The council of chief designers has worked out a common view that I shall present to the government in a search for a governmental support for the plan on extending Mir flight" and was immediately criticised by NASA. At the same time, Koptev had to confirm another delay in the launch of the Zvezda (also referred to as the Service Module to ISS), to February. Without this core module carrying the major life-support systems and the station"s central flight control system, ISS can not maintain a permanent human presence onboard The Zvezda flight has been postponed because of the two recent Proton-K failures. According to the investigation commission, these two failures had the same origin, namely the faulty engines of the second stage (uncontrolled fuel burning caused by manufacturing defects in components supplied by the mechanical plant of Voronezh). It was found that all engines manufactured at Voronezh plant in 1992 (after an 8-month break in production) need re-working. The investigation commission demanded the modification of the second stage engines for the Zvezda"s Proton-K launch vehicle, so as to guarantee the safety of the launch. The improved version of the engines will have additional filters before the gas generator, in order to eliminate foreign metal and organic parts from entering it. The engine pump will be replaced with a new model withstanding higher temperatures. The first batch of the improved engines will be fire tested in June 2000. RAKA seems to be willing to wait for the results of the tests before approving launches of such valuable loads as the Zvezda. The first commercial launch using the rocket with improved engines is planned for July, when a Proton-K will deploy an Altair-series relay satellite. The Zvezda is planned for deployment by the second operational Proton-K with improved engines, seemingly in August or September 2000. The six-month delay in the ISS has prompted RAKA to refocus on Mir. This position is likely to provoke a strong negative reaction from NASA. The USA long ago developed contingency plans for ISS assembly, including the replacement of the Russian-built SM module with a US-made analogue, so-called Interim Control Module (ICM), developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. ICM can be deployed by US Shuttle and effectively replace the SM. Although the implementation of this will require additional spending, NASA could go down this route, given the circumstances. At the very least, the new delay will fuel the long-standing bone of contention between RAKA and NASA. It also provides NASA with a useful smoke screen for its own internal problems, such as delays with completion and testing of US-built ISS elements. Associated articles: www.concise.org. 3rd May 1999; 2nd June 1999; 13th July 1999

Article ID: 1383