Washington Expects Russia To Honor Its Obligations To Space Station

AFP ^ | 27 Sep 02 | staff

[RightWhale]

Washington Expects Russia To Honor Its Obligations To Space Station

Washington (AFP) Sept 26, 2002

Responding to reports that Russia would not be able to pay up its share of the International Space Station, Washington said Thursday it expects Moscow to "meet their commitments," an official said.

"NASA has not received any indication from Roskiakosmos (the Russian space agency) that Russia will not be able to meet its commitment under the International Space Station agreements," NASA said in a brief statement.

The Russian space agency had warned earlier in the day, however, it can no longer afford to meet its commitments to help build and supply the International Space Station.

"The situation (in the Russian space industry) is difficult" and "there are risks" that the ISS operations may be suspended, Russian Space Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told AFP in Moscow.

His remarks came a day after the press quoted space official Valery Ryumin as saying the situation had become "desperate" and he had written to NASA to discuss "temporarily suspending" the station.

Russian space construction company, Energia, forced to borrow money, has been having trouble repaying its debts which amount to one billion roubles (about 32 million dollars) because of insufficient state subsidies.

NASA acknowledged in the statement that it has heard of Energia's troubles.

"NASA has received some preliminary indications that the primary Russian contractor for the ISS is having financial difficulties and is discussing the potential impact to ISS resulting from these difficulties with the responsible officials" at its Russian counterpart, the statement said.

Nevertheless "NASA and the United States government fully expect that the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Russian government will meet their commitments under the International Space Station agreements," NASA said.

According to the Russian press, Russia's space program will only get 1.2 billion roubles (38 million dollars) of subsidy in 2003 which will not cover repayment of debts or the fulfillment of its ISS obligations.

[RightWhale]

It's okay for NASA to drop a few components for the ISS such as the habitation module and the escape module. Others, however, must stick to the deal.

What Congress should do is mothball the ISS and redirect NASA's efforts to exploration of space.

[Arkinsaw]

Thats funny, cause I don't expect them to.

[another cricket]

Not a bad stick.

a.cricket

[snopercod]

NASA can excrete in one hand and expect in the other, then see which one fills up first. From my resignation letter from the Shuttle program:

This once-proud program, which sparked the imaginations of millions of Americans such as myself, has seemingly been reduced to some kind of pathetic international welfare agency, transferring billions of US taxpayer dollars directly away from our professed mission and into the accounts of whichever foreign "partners" are favored by our current president.

These so-called "partners" have siphoned off American taxpayer money for purposes know only to themselves and provided nothing of value in return to the US taxpayers. The hardware and services that they cynically promised to provide have not materialized and probably never will.

Thanks to the policies of our current administration, the US Space Shuttle program now finds itself being held hostage to the whims of a miserable socialist country run by a declining alcoholic buffoon and a communist legislature.

How could our so-called leaders have let this happen?

Thanks a lot, AlGore and Bill Clinton...

[TheEngineer]

Great letter, snopercod. Years back, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers) "Spectrum" Magazine wrote a very hard-hitting article about the international space station partnership (debacle) with the Soviet Union. It said, basically, what you said in your letter. It made the case that our space program had absolutely nothing to learn from the Soviets.

I remember thinking that it seemed like something conjured up by Clinton/Gore to make them appear like they had some international skills.

If we want to give money to the Russians, we should be buying their nuclear warheads. At least we would get something from the deal.

[TheEngineer]

Whoops. I called them the "Soviet Union" incorrectly. They were "Russia" during those years.

[BenLurkin]

Soviets or Russians, either way I don't expect them to live up to any commitments. (But maybe I have a skewed view of their character and historical tendencies?)