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Shuttle to the Side
// Russia Not Ruling Out America's Withdrawal from the ISS Project
On Saturday evening, the American space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral with a crew of seven astronauts on board. Its main task is to deliver a new construction element to the International Space Station (ISS). Construction on the ISS is slated to be completed by 2010, but Russia is not ruling out the possibility that the US will exit the program early, and the Russian side is preparing for such an eventuality.
The launch of the shuttle Atlantis was originally planned for August 27. First, however, Hurricane Ernesto advanced on Cape Canaveral, and then the launch pad where the shuttle stood was hit by lightning, meaning that all of the shuttle and launcher systems had be retested. Subsequently, defects were discovered in the fuel sensor in the shuttle's external fuel tank, and the shuttle was launched only on the fifth attempt.
The launch process itself was also not without problems: pieces of the shuttle's heat-resistant foam covering fell off the external fuel tank. In 2003, a piece of the same kind of foam hit the wing of the space shuttle Columbia, causing a fatal explosion that destroyed the shuttle and killed all seven astronauts on board. This time, inspections of the shuttle's external tanks showed that the shuttle had not been damaged by the falling pieces. This conclusion will be finalized today during an inspection of the spacecraft by the crew of the ISS before the shuttle docks with the station.
The major task of the shuttle's crew, which is headed by Brent Jett, will be to continue construction on the American part of the ISS. The last time an American construction element was delivered to the station was in November 2002, after which shuttle launches were interrupted by the demise of the Columbia. After launches were resumed, the two flights of the shuttle Discovery in 2005-2006 only delivered payloads of cargo that were needed for the station to stay in orbit and for urgent repairs. This time, Atlantis will deliver four large solar batteries, which are intended to increase the power of the station's energy supply system. According to NASA's plans, the shuttle will complete another 16 flights to the station in order to finish construction by 2010. NASA's long-term plan for financing the work anticipates spending on the ISS until 2015.
However, it is possible that the US will withdraw from the ISS program before 2010. NASA currently intends to spend the largest part of its budget on the creation of a new space shuttle, Orion, and on the Ares I and Ares V rockets, which will land astronauts on the moon by 2017. In order to facilitate these plans, projects for studying the Earth and investigating the other planets have already been cancelled, and the scientific programs associated with the ISS have been severely curtailed.
Representatives of the Russian space program do not exclude the possibility that NASA will withdraw from the ISS program completely. "We are not saying that will happen," said a highly placed source in the "Energy" corporation. "However, as insurance, we are preparing ourselves in advance for such a possibility." For "Energy," this means that the company, with the authorization of the Federal Space Agency, is already reviewing the project of building the Russian part of the ISS. "Currently we are planning to attach our new elements of the station only to the Russian modules, to amplify the energy of our segment, and to increase the possibilities at the station for scientific experiments," said a spokesman for "Energy." These changes will allow the Russian segment to be detached from the station and kept in orbit independently in the event that the US withdraws from the ISS program. "In that case, we will have a purely Russian station," said the source. "We can change its name to Mir 2."
Konstantin Lantratov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 11, 2006
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