Cosmonautics
By Dennis Newkirk
İ COPYRIGHT 1995 by CSPACE PRESS INC. All rights reserved
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Jan/Feb. 1995
International Space Station Developments
The formal agreement between the USA and Russia which will bring
Russian into the group of nations building the International Space Station
(Alpha) is expected to be finalized by early 1995. Work on the agreement
has been ongoing in meetings held about every 6 weeks since early 1994.
The formal agreement will replace the temporary agreement signed in
June 1994. Work on the first Russian contribution to the station, the FGB
module, was described in the previous issue of Countdown. On Nov. 10, the
final detailed schedule for assembly of Alpha was completed in Moscow
between NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and RSA Director Yuri Koptev.
Koptev described the Russian contributions as a module for universal
docking and experiments, the FGB, and power units.
US Vice President Al Gore visited Moscow in December in ongoing
meetings on economic development including space cooperation between
himself and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Talks were held
on space bio-medicine exchanges between Moscow State University and
the University of Houston and other subjects.
Space Center News
On Dec. 13, Chernomyrdin and Akezhan Kazhegeldin of Kazkastan
signed the ratified version of the agreement for renting the Baykonur
Cosmodrome as described in previous Cosmonautics News columns. It now
remains to be seen how much support actually is received at Baykonur to
keep people and facilities working in safe and productive conditions. On
the bright side, commercial funds are supplementing Russian funds today.
Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia is upgrading the Proton launch facilities
with its own funds. Formally announced in a Dec. 6, 1994 Lockheed press
release, LKEI announced the plan for further previous investments in
launch systems for the Proton at Baykonur. The plan for continued
upgrades includes better cleanliness controls, upgrading the air quality
and air conditioning systems, improved communications equipment and
improving living standards for cosmodrome workers. LKEI President
Charles Lloydıs claim that "Proton and its related facilities at Baykonur
are fully functioning..." is not quite the full story. In fact, out of the 4
Proton launch pads only 2 are presently in operational condition. "81L" is
currently in use and "200L" can only be used a few more times before its
design lifetime is used up. Pad "81R" is planned to be made operational in
1996, and "200R" is mothballed. "200R and 200L" are now to be
transferred to the RSA to carry out commercial launches and launches to
the international space station in the future.
Baykonur Chief Lt. Gen. Aleksey Shumilin has completed an
agreement with local government of the Novosibirsk area which defines
booster fallout areas from launches at Baykonur. The agreement calls for
the areas to be rented by the cosmodrome, and reimbursement for any
damage done by falling booster debris.
On Dec. 9, Russia tested a new variant of the SS-25 missile
designated as the Topol-M. The Topol-M is planned to be silo based.
The Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center has now officially offered to
the public 5 day training classes in some aspects of cosmonaut training
with sessions in stellar navigation, weightlessness training, centrifuge,
spacecraft trainers, etc.. Similar training sessions have been run in the
past for western groups. The classes are open to people under 80 years old
that can pass a medical checkup.
Space Industry Funding
Funding for Russian space programs fell far short in 1994 from
official projections of the requested and the promised allocation of funds.
A total of about 1550 Billion roubles were requested and 890 Billion were
allocated, but only 450 Billion were received by the space industry of
Russia. In addition reports claim up to 205,000 employees have left the
space industry in the last 3 years. The plants that make up the traditional
core strength of Russian space industry are not immune from the
hardships either. NPO Energomash, maker of rocket engines, was
approaching a strike situation over unpaid wages in late 1994. The Central
Specialized Design Bureau Progress plant in Samara, maker of the Soyuz
and Energia boosters, had accumulated 63 Billion Roubles in uncollected
revenues, payment of wages are months behind schedule, and the work
force was cut by 8000. Even RKK Energia has had to formally ask the
Russian government for additional funds so that the program of flights to
Mir will not be effected early in 1995 by debt problems. Yuri Koptev
announced in December 1994, that 2200 Billion Roubles will be needed for
space research and design in 1995. Based on 1994ıs experience the next
year looks little better.
There are still hopes that after downsizing conditions in the space
industry will stabilize again. Central Specialized Design Bureau is hoping
to win contracts for launching some of the 26 Globestar communication
satellites. LKEI has fully booked Proton launches allowed in the quotas
imposed by western nations to help protect western space industry from
artificially low Russian pricing.
Ukrainian Developments
The Ukrainian National Space Agency and the Indian Space Research
Organization signed an agreement on cooperation in space matters on Sept.
16 1994. The agreement includes sharing of Earth resources data,
communications, materials studies and sharing of launch infrastructure.
The agreement allows for the launching of Ukraine's satellites on Indian
boosters and also the launch of Ukrainian boosters at Indian sites, but
there are no firm plans yet to do either. Acting Director General Andriy
Zharko-Tytarenko emphasized that rocket technology would not be shared
with the Indians due to Missile Technology Control Regime restrictions.
The precaution is practically useless in any event since India has had the
necessary skills to build ballistic missile weapons for many years now.
On Oct. 15, the Ukraine also signed an agreement with the USA to
pave the way for cooperation in the future. Ukraine has also asked that a
quota system be setup for western firms to buy Zenit and Tsiklon boosters
similar to the quotas previously setup for Russian boosters. Ukraine also
has offered its booster technology to western countries which holds
bright promise since the Ukraine has state of the art automation launch
systems to be applied to any future western boosters. On Oct. 24, a NASA
group visited aerospace industry sites in Ukraine including the hugh
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk. The group came away with
plans for the use of space welding devices made at the Paton Institute,
and with plans for sharing Earth resources information and other space
experiment data.
A proposal from the Nikolayev research and design center for ship
building was due to be made in December to convert the partially
completed Kiev class aircraft carrier cruiser the Varyag into a platform
for the launching of space boosters. The Varyag has remained uncompleted
since work halted on it 3 years ago. Hundreds of millions or Roubles are
needed for its completion.
On Dec. 13, two Ukrainian solders were arrested attempting to
smuggle samples of missile propellant of the country. The soldiers were
planning to smuggle a large quantity of the propellants after delivery of
the samples to their foreign buyers.
The US DoD announced in December that a joint Ukrainian-US
construction project was initiated to build 135 housing units for former
Strategic Rocket Troops in Khmelnitsky Ukraine, a SS-19 ICBM base. The
project was funded by the Nunn-Lugar program for threat reduction for
$16 Million.
[Information for this article comes from publicly available sources
including the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Joint Publications
Research Service, BBC Monitoring, Voice of America, and the Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty Daily Report. Also, special thanks to Rex Hall and
James Oberg.]
Cosmonautics News is reprinted here with permission from CSPACE PRESS
INC., P.O. Box 9331, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49509-0331
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