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INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION DEVELOPMENTS

NASA's International Space Station project took on Russia as a partner in 1993 in addition to existing European, Japanese and Canadian partners. The other partners did not play a part in inclusion of the Russians, and the detailed partnership agreement between them and NASA was not changed to take into account Russian participants. The agreement was for a cross between the original Freedom station married to the once planned Mir-2 with the Russians providing propulsion and propellant resupply capability for both halves.

The program was split into two parts, Phase 1 including flights of astronauts to Mir and NASA Shuttle resupply of Mir, and Phase 2 which is the development of the International Space Station which is yet to be officially named.

A New Plan Emerges

At the end of 1995 Russian officials were publicly promoting a redesign of the ISS by basing station assembly on the existing Mir complex to reduce Russian costs. The idea had been discussed in secret by high level NASA and RSA managers since the summer of 1995. On November 13, 1995 the general director of Khrunichev unexpectedly announced the plan

publicly in the Russian press. The plan, with some variations, included launching the FGB and docking the US Node-1 to it, then flying the assembly to dock to Mir's forward docking port. Some or all of the existing Mir modules would have been retained and would reduce the need to build and launch a new core and lab modules as originally planned, saving a great deal of money for the Russians and advancing the short term capabilities of the station a great deal while sacrificing some long term goals.

Khrunichev was also willing to commit a Russian funded backup FGB module to the plan to use as a new lab module. The proposal could have cost less and provided faster permanent manned operations, depending on how many elements of the original ISS were retained. The Russians also believed that there was support for this plan at the Johnson Space Center.

Khrunichev stood to profit with the new plan by eliminating the originally planned RKK Energia built Zenit launched lab modules which were a competitor to Khrunichev's FGB based lab modules.

One drawback to the plan was the eventual need to replace the Mir core due to its age, the Russians envisioned replacing the core module about 2002, but being the hub of the new station this would be difficult without disassembling the station. It was most likely that the new core would be docked to the old Mir core and deactivation of many systems in the old module. It also could not generate the same amount of power as the original plan and there could have been clearance problems with the old Mir modules and new ISS elements.

NASA

The subject of controversy in 1996, the Service Module is based on the Mir design and was Russias critical propulsion, control and habitation module for the ISS.

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SHUTTLE-MIR

Mir Operations

Mir continued to host the ESA EuroMir crewman Thomas Rieter during the first of the 1996. In early January, they completed repairs to the Kvant VGK thermal control system which sprang a leak in 1995. The system was needed to cool the Vozdukh carbon dioxide scrubber and backup Electron oxygen generator in Kvant. ESA experiments occupied much time up to the Feb. 8 EVA by Rieter and Gidzenko.

The Priroda module was due to be delivered to Baykonur on Dec. 20 1995, but this was delayed by 3 weeks, also delaying the launch from March to early April, which would delay some NASA experiments on the module. NASA learned of the first delays in the fall 1995 and the program was replanned to take the delay into account because Shannon Lucid was to use the equipment on Priroda. Until it arrived, she was to perform other science with experiments in the Spektr. Officially the launch date was set as March 10, and this was to be achieved by shortening launch preparations. Unofficially, sources stated a likely date was by April, and this became April 14 by the end of January. Priroda was shipped to the launch site on Jan. 17.

In late January a Flight Readiness Review was held for Shannon Lucid's NASA-2 mission. After the day long review, it was determined that flight procedures for the long mission were not complete and couldn't be completed in time for launch. Accepting this marked a major change in the way NASA did business in planning long duration missions where everything can't be planned months in advance of real events. By mid-February this change in operating procedure was accepted.

In February, Mir celebrated its 10th year in orbit. The Mir complex was originally designed to be completed in a few years, but 10 years after launch it was still not complete with the Priroda module launch being regularly pushed back throughout the early months of 1996. The Priroda module itself, and the earlier launched Spektr, were only made ready after significant funding from NASA as part of the ISS Phase 1 program. Among the NASA astronauts, the Russian made modules became casually known as the 'US' modules.

After much speculation, on Feb. 29, the Mir EO-21 mission was extended due to a 44 day delay in production of the R 15 Billion Soyuz booster. A rumored second EVA for Thomas Reiter did not materialize in the 44 day extension plan. The mission extension was taken from the next missions crew so as not to upset the schedules of succeeding missions.^42,43

The Priroda launch schedule was threatened in February after a Proton launch of a Raduga communications satellite failed and the

failure investigation began. The Priroda launch date remained set for April 14 while the investigation continued, but it later slip for other reasons. In March, Priroda was in the Baykonur vacuum chamber for testing after its final reassembly after shipping to Baykonur.

The Priroda schedule was again threatened in March when the Astra commercial communications satellite launch slipped to April 9. This pushed the Priroda launch to around April 29 due to a standard 20 day period to restore the launch pad, one of only two operational, the other being reserved for the Space Forces for military launches only. The Priroda also had to launch by about May 8 when Progress M-31 was scheduled to be launched to Mir and which took precedence over Priroda. NASA pressed for a launch as early as possible and the schedule was moved up.

On March 15, Mir E0-21 crewmen Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev performed an EVA to install a second Strela crane to the Mir base block to allow solar array transfers from the Docking Module to Kvant.⁴⁴

STS-76/NASA-2

The second NASA long duration mission to Mir, dubbed NASA-2, was a continuation of the Phase 1 International Space Station program. Based on the 1995 mission of Norm Thagard to Mir (Mir EO-18/NASA-1), Shannon Lucid was to continue long term flights to Mir using the Shuttle for transportation. In November 1995, there was an odd report from ITAR-TASS stating that Lucid's backup John Blaha had been made the primary NASA-2 astronaut, and the report went on to say that NASA had decided the mission was too difficult a task for a woman. The report was not true, but would not be the last time the issue of a woman flying to the station was brought up in the press.

STS-76 delivered Shannon Lucid to Mir in March when she became a member of the Mir crew. Lucid trained with 4 different flight crews for her mission. She was launched with STS-76, spent months on Mir with the Mir EO-21

The Mir EO-21 crew, Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev, and NASA-2 astronaut Shannon Lucid

Kapustin Yar

On May 10, President Yeltsin traveled to Kapustin Yar and Znamensk to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cosmodrome where it was said 26 types of spacecraft and a hundred types of missile systems had been tested. Yeltsin presented awards to several officers and inspected some weapons systems. The current state of the art RS-12M Topol underwent some testing at the range.²⁴⁷ Yeltsin also announced support for the military industrial complex promising that a plan to pay debts by May would be implemented.^248,249

A Kosmos-3M will be launched in February 1999 from Kapustin Yar with the German ABRIXAS astronomical satellite. It would be the first orbital launch from the oldest of Russian launch sites in several years.²⁵⁰

Svobodny

The Svobodny Cosmodrome grew nearer to operation in 1996, launch of the first satellite was planned for late 1996 or early 1997. Development and maintenance of an RS-18 (SS-19) silo for Rokot launches and preparation of mobile launch areas for Start cost R 50 Billion annually. The silo had been prepared for commercial launches by removing all military hardware. Four more were planned to be converted and several Start launch areas were to be prepared.²⁵¹ Development of Angara launch pads was estimated at costing R 4.5 Trillion which contributed in delaying the project until after 2000.²⁵² The RSA still considered development of Svobodny a long term option and improvements at Baykonur and Plesetsk got most attention from the RSA in 1996.^253,254

At Svobodny, in 1995 the local power concern was trying to get R 2.5 Billion owed by the ICBM complex and new Cosmodrome. Power was cutoff on Oct. 5th and 6th for many hours to the 7000 residents of the military community and complex. In March 1996, power was cut to many industrial sites in eastern Siberia, their debt totalled $208 Million. Railroads for a time stopped shipments to eastern Siberian bases due to non-payment of debts. Defense ministry officials complained that the budget for 1996 was about half of the money needed. At the same time some workers blocked a railway in protest of late payment of wages.

Russia was not alone in these problems, Ukrainian officials recently had cut power to 7000 factories which were delinquent in paying electric bills. 40,000 businesses had a debt of $980 Million for power and heating. Russia was forced to disconnect Ukraine from the joint power grid due to the losses it experienced.

On March 1, President Yeltsin officially approved the creation of Russia's third cosmodrome near the town Svobodny in the Far East.²⁵⁵ The first launch was to be a Start-1 flight with EarthWatch's Worldview mapping satellite in late 1996 but this plan fell through

SPACE CENTERS

Plesetsk

In September 1995, Prime Minister Chernomyrdin signed an order banning power cutoffs to military and major defense factories (previous orders required at least 30 days of delinquent payments). In all of 1995, Plesetsk received about 45% of its needed funding. Days after Chernomyrdin signed the order, troops at Plesetsk had to be sent to patrol substations on the base to prevent power cutoffs during the launch of the last Resurs-F2 on Sept. 26. The Resurs-F2 was discontinued after the flight and was planned to be replaced with the Nika built by Lavochkin, but that program is not proceeding due to no funding.²⁴⁴

In fact, the Plesetsk main power supply had already been cut and the base was operating on an emergency supply line which can only be switched off from within the base. Plesetsk including the town of Mirnny, owed the local power company R 17 Billion and the base commander had been given an ultimatum to pay in 10 days or face cutoffs. The utility also threatened to send local militia to guard the substations but in the end they did not challenge Plesetsk troops and the launch was successful. Afterward the local government settled the immediate debt, the power utility was owed R 232 Billion from the region.

The troops at Plesetsk had also gone unpaid for 2 months, and debts piled up again. Power cuts continued at both Plesetsk and Baykonur throughout 1996. At Baykonur, the Proton facilities were backed up by a new independent power supply provided by ILS, but only for commercial launches. Loss of power at the Proton pads was commonly attributed as a contributing factor in the Mars-96 failure.

In January, officers at Plesetsk were blamed for the misappropriation of petroleum allocated for military use, they had resold it with the help of a local businessman. Military prosecutors claimed up to R 7 Billion were lost due to their actions. Since wages are not being fully paid to the military, many solders believe it was their right to sell government property within their grasp to make up the difference. Corruption in the military showed no signs of abating in 1996.

The Plesetsk cosmodrome was continuing modernization of all its 9 launch complexes to support military programs moving from Baykonur. One Zenit pad is near completion and a second is scheduled to be completed in 1997. Four Soyuz pads are all being modernized for the Soyuz-2K (Rus) booster. A separate pad for Angara may be built in the next decade although it can use a modified Zenit pad.²⁴⁵ On August 11, Major General Anatoly Ovchinnikov, Commander of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome died.²⁴⁶

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story was false. The SS-18 was designed and manufactured in the Ukraine by Yuzhmash.³¹¹

In the first half of 1996, the Ministry of Defense had actually received 47% its promised funding. The Ministry also owed industry R 800 Million from 1995 and a total of R 3 Billion in total.³¹²

The joint American-Russian supersonic research project utilizing the Tu-144LL moved forward in March when the highly modified aircraft was rolled out at Zhukovski. Newly equipped with the most advanced jet engines and a cabin full of instrumentation, the project was to carry out research into design of Mach 2 transports of the future. The 6 month long 32 flight project was the result of a Gore-Chernomyrdin meeting in 1994 which was followed a the NASA-Tupolev KB agreement which includes Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell, Pratt & Whitney and GE.^313,314

Daimler-Benz also had cooperative projects with Tupolev researching use of hydrogen and natural gas to power aircraft. The first phase was to test hydrogen fuel in a Do-328 followed by reused of some system to power a Tu-130 with natural gas.³¹⁵

While research continues at a modest pace a Tupolev factory, AO Aviakor, reduced its staff by 2,000 and cut pay for nearly 9000 workers because of the lack of Tu-154 sales. Production had dropped dramatically from 78 to 9 aircraft over the last 2 years. No payments on 28 current contracts had been received in 1996, and in 1995 Russian airlines paid for only 8 aircraft.³¹⁶

President Yeltsin made a token bid to help the Perm engine plant on June by ordering a set of engines for a government IL-96-300. The company had dismissed 1000 workers in late 1995 and has been working a 3 day work week. Its engines are not known for their reliability or economy in comparison to western engines.³¹⁷

In September, Vladimir Nechai, the director of Chelyabinsk-70, a nuclear weapons development center, complained in a letter to Prime Minister Chernomyrdin that non-payment of funds and cuts in funding had "practically paralyzed" the center. In 1996, $23 Million in promised funding had not been received, a third of it was for workers wages. To make up for some of the shortfall Chelyabinsk-70 had taken out loans from banks. In October, after writing that he could no longer watch his life's work fall apart, Nechai shot himself in his office. Friends attributed his suicide to the great pressure he was forced to work under.³¹⁸

It was reported in September that the United States was near agreement to buy 100 Moskit 3M-80Ye anti-ship missiles for $100 million. They were to be delivered by the Raduga KB, the Altair State NPO, and the Progress joint-stock company over a period of 5 years. The deal would save the Progress plant from closing due to its debts. Raduga has a more advanced missile in development called the AS-19 Koala, so the sale was not considered a

GOVERNMENT & INDUSTRY

Aerospace and Defense Industry

A turn around in the aerospace and defense industry was forecast in 1996. In 1995 the industries production in Roubles fell 22% from 1994 (and in 1994 it was down 38% from 1993). Even with the hoped for up turn, production in aerospace was anemic compared with the past with only 95 transports and 180 helicopters produced. Only about 30 aircraft were procured for the Air Force in 1995 and no combat aircraft were ordered in 1996.

In February, Yeltsin's Chief of Staff Nikolai Yegorov, announced he was going to lobby the government in the interest of Russia's military aviation and space development. He said Russia had contracts for $6.5 Billion of military aircraft, but there was no money allocated for aircraft purchases.³⁰⁶

A October 1995 report about the state of the defense industry quoted Duma calculations that as much as 80% of enterprises could be technically declared bankrupt. While that would not be allowed to happen it was being used as a political tool against the current government because it could theoretically open the enterprises to public sale and result in loss of government control over the industry. The only thing keeping the industry alive was export deals worth $6.5 Billion on the books for 1996.³⁰⁷

On March 11, a government conference on privatization of industry was held. Koptev said that there would be little effect on the space industry because those businesses wishing to be privatized have already done so and the remainder wanted to stay with the security of the state or had not diversified their products enough to survive privately.³⁰⁸ In April, Boris Yeltsin directed Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets to head a commission to make a list of defense industry which could not be privatized and those which would have to have a controlling government interest. This would insure national security interests during the move to a more private economy.³⁰⁹

On April 12, Boris Yeltsin decreed the joining of the Central Specialized Design Bureau and the Progress plant in Samara. The state owned firm would be known as TsSKB-Progress and was to implement programs for defense, scientific and commercial interests. The company was to be administered by the RSA.³¹⁰

In May, US Secretary of Defense William Perry stated concerns that private firms in Russia had sold RS-20 (SS-18) technology to China. Russian officials said they would study the charge, but initial reactions were that the threat to Russia's security.³¹⁹

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References

^{1 Aleksandrov, Vladimir. "We Could Reach Mars Together But the Money Is Tight" ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, Moscow, 13 Jan 1996}

2 Parrish, Scott. "CHERNOMYRDIN-GORE COMMISSION MEET", OMRI, 1/30/96

3 Cherkovets, Oleg. "The Big Scam... What Will IMF Executive Director Michel Camdessus Bring to Moscow?" SOVETSKAYA ROSSIYA, Moscow, 10 Feb 96, p. 3

4 Yezhov, Gennadiy and Lebedev, Ivan. ITAR-TASS World Service, Moscow, 2040 GMT 30 Jan 96

5 Gurushina, Natalia. "MIR STATION CELEBRATES TENTH ANNIVERSARY", OMRI, 2/20/96

6 "NASA defends $13.8 billion space program budget", Reuters, 19 Mar 1996 15:10:24 PST

7 "Space Agency Sees Need to Update Launch Pad at Baykonur", INTERFAX, Moscow, 13:55 GMT 5 Feb 1996

8 "Russian Space Program Toiling", The Associated Press, 2/19/96

9 Gurushina, Natalia. "CHERNOMYRDIN VISITS KHRUNICHEV SPACE CENTER", OMRI, 9603-14

10 Gurushina, Natalia. "MIR STATION CELEBRATES TENTH ANNIVERSARY", OMRI, 2/20/96

11 Space Station this Week, NASA, 96-01, Jan. 8, 1996

12 Space Station this Week, NASA, 96-02, Feb. 6, 1996

13 Gurushina, Natalia. "FINANCIAL PROBLEMS MAR 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF SPACE PROGRAM", OMRI, 96-04-12

14 Gurushina, Natalia. "GOVERNMENT APPROVES DECREE ON FINANCING SPACE PROGRAM", OMRI, 96-04-25

15 Mayak Radio Network, Moscow, 0900 GMT, 16 July 1996

16 Buben, Mikhail. "On Pearls and Watery Soup", POISK, Moscow, 3-9 Feb 1996, pp. 3

17 Yerastov, Aleksandr. "Gore Is Not Far Off He Is With Chernomyrdin", TRUD, Moscow, 16 July 1996, pp. 1

18 Russian Federation Government Directive No. 702-r, dated 1 May 1996, ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA, Moscow, 29 May 1996, pp. 5

19 Radio Rossii Network, Moscow, 1600 GMT 16 July 1996

20 Yezhov, Gennadiy. ITAR-TASS, Moscow, 1357 GMT 16 July 1996

21 Shitov, Andrey. ITAR-TASS World Service, Moscow, 1950 GMT 16 July 1996

22 Nikishin, Leonard. "Orbital Stations: The Road to Nowhere" MOSKOVSKIYE NOVOSTI, Moscow, 7-14 April 1996, pp. 17

23 Novichkov, Nicolay. "Russian Space Chief Voices Dire Warnings", Aviation Week & ST, Jan. 6, 1997, pp. 26

24 Covault, Craig, "Secret Navy Spacecraft to Aid Space Station", Aviation Week & ST, Jan. 20, 1997, pp. 20-21

25 Voice of Russia, 0400 UTC March 19, 1996

26 Boeing Press Release, March 1996

27 "NASA AND RSA AGREE TO EXTEND SHUTTLE-MIR ACTIVITIES", NASA HQ PRESS RELEASE: 96-18, 1/30/96

28 Pike, John. "NASA Budget Request Human Space Flight Fiscal Year 1998 Estimates Budget Summary Office of Space Flight US/Russian Cooperative Program", Federation of American Scientists, Feb. 10, 1997

29 "NASA AND RSA AGREE TO EXTEND SHUTTLE-MIR ACTIVITIES", NASA HQ PRESS RELEASE: 96-18, 1/30/96

30 "Cosmonaut commander dropped from station crew", Reuters, 17 Nov 1996 16:10:43 PST

31 Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Moscow, Oct. 24, 1996

32"Cosmonautics" Aerospace Journal, Passport International, Moscow, Nov.-Dec. 1996, pp. 72

33 "CREW NAMED TO FIRST SPACE STATION ASSEMBLY FLIGHT", NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, August 16, 1996, RELEASE: 96-169