NASA to Lend Russian Space Effort $20 Million
Science: International bid to put station in orbit is threatened by Moscow's failure to fund a key component.
By RALPH VARTABEDIAN, NORMAN KEMPSTER, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON--Reflecting a deepening crisis in the International Space Station
program, NASA is making a highly unusual $20-million emergency loan to
cash-starved Russian aerospace concerns that are eight months behind
schedule in building a key component, NASA chief Daniel S. Goldin
disclosed Thursday.
NASA's loan comes amid increasing concern that Russia's problems could
jeopardize the entire international project. If the Russian hardware, due
to be launched late next year, is not in place according to schedule, the
entire project will be at risk of crashing into the atmosphere and
burning up.
The space station troubles headed the list of issues in talks Thursday
between Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S.
Chernomyrdin, who was in Washington on a previously scheduled visit.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are rushing to
complete an evaluation of two alternatives if the Russian effort
collapses, which would raise serious cost and schedule issues, Goldin
said. A decision on those alternatives is expected in the next month.
Russian officials have repeatedly assured NASA that they have released
funding necessary to complete the "service module," a fundamental
component that provides both propulsion and navigation for the entire
station.
As recently as a month ago, NASA space station chief Randy Brinkley
declared that the problem was solved because Russian officials told him
that they had released the funding.
But Goldin acknowledged Thursday that NASA representatives have seen
little sign of activity at the Russian Krunichev aerospace plant, where
the module is being built.
"The time for patience is over," Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.
(R-Wis.), chairman of the House Science Committee, said in an interview
Thursday. "The money has not been there."
Sensenbrenner said the Russian delays threaten to ripple across the
program, raising the prospect of a schedule slip that would affect the
United States, Japan, Canada and Europe and trigger billions of dollars
of cost overruns.
The schedule for the service module is critical because once the space
station construction sequence begins, NASA has 14 months to get the
service module in place or risk the partially built station burning up in
the atmosphere.
Sensenbrenner, along with three other key congressional leaders in
space issues, wrote a letter to Gore this week urging him to secure a
"definitive agreement" from Chernomyrdin when the two men met.
But John Pike, a space expert at the Federation of American
Scientists, predicted that the issue is unlikely to be resolved soon, and
may ultimately kill the project.
Pike asserted that the Russians are withholding funding in response to
Clinton administration support for expanding the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization into Eastern Europe, a prospect that is deeply resented by
Russians.
"They are jerking us around because of NATO expansion," Pike said.
"However unhappy we make them over NATO expansion, they plan to make us
equally unhappy over the space station."
Before leaving Moscow, Chernomyrdin underscored Russia's objections to
NATO expansion, saying in a newspaper interview that if the alliance
takes in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic--as now seems almost
certain--Russia will have to revive its mothballed arms industry and
rebuild its military might.
Gore and Chernomyrdin, however, opened their meeting Thursday by
assuring each other that the Cold War enemies are now unshakable
partners.
"We share a fundamental belief in the ideals of liberty," Gore said
during a brief public exchange before two days of closed-door talks.
Copyright Los Angeles Times
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
