NASA Calls Purchase of Progress, Soyuz Vehicles Last Resort

NASA would consider paying the Russian space agency for Progress and Soyuz space-transport vehicles should all other options for supporting the international space station without the space shuttle fail, the U.S. agency's top foreign relations official told Congress June 11.

John Schumacher, NASA associate administrator for external relations, sought to reassure members of the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee that Russia and the other partners in the 16-nation space station program are stepping up and helping out as NASA tries to recover from the Feb. 1 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Schumacher said Russia remains on track to conduct its third Progress space station resupply flight of the year this summer and to send a new two-person crew to the orbital outpost on a Soyuz TMA capsule in October. Schumacher also told lawmakers that, because of the success in conserving water and other consumables aboard the station since April - when the outpost's crew-size was reduced to two - a fourth Progress flight that NASA had been pushing for no longer appears critical.

The Russian government is due to consider in September a Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) request for additional funding in 2003 and 2004 to help pay for the extra support it has provided in the wake of the grounding of the space shuttle fleet, Schumacher said. A joint statement of support for the space station program that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W Bush issued June 1 following their St. Petersburg, Russia, summit gives NASA reason to be optimistic that additional Russian funding is forthcoming, he said.

The additional funding would cover the construction of up to two extra Progress ships that might be needed next year, depending on how long the shuttle fleet remains grounded.

Under international agreements governing the space station program, Russia is committed to two Soyuz and three Progress launches to the outpost a year. Until NASA clears its three remaining shuttles to return to flight, Russia possesses the only proven means of delivering cargo and crews to the space station.

Should Russia's parliament balk at the additional funding, Schumacher said, NASA would first turn to its other partners, namely the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies, to help Rosaviakosmos out of any resulting cash crunch. If those avenues are not feasible, and the shuttles' return to flight is not imminent, NASA would have to consider either flying the station unoccupied for a period of time or seeking statutory relief from the Iran Non-Proliferation Act. That U.S. law bars NASA from giving Russia money for space station-related goods and services absent White House certification that Russian aerospace firms are not helping Iran develop missiles. Nonproliferation experts contend that the White House could not in good faith give Russian aerospace companies such a clean bill of health.

"The last resort ... the last thought we would have would be to come to the Congress and seek relief from the Iran Nonproliferation Act," Schumacher said.

Schumacher's testimony actually represented a slight softening of NASAs earlier position on the Iran Non-Proliferation Act. Senior agency officials, including NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, have said on multiple occasions since the Columbia accident that they have no intent to seek a waiver of the law.

Some members of Congress, including lawmakers who voted for the act, are pushing for changes in light of the Columbia accident. For example, Rep. Nick Lampson (DTexas) introduced a bill (H.R. 1001) that would permit an exception to the Iran Act while the shuttle remains grounded.

Rep. Bart Gordon (Tenn.), a cosponsor of Lampson's bill and the space subcommittee's ranking Democrat, asked Schumacher to alert Congress sooner rather than later if it is going to need relief from the Iran Act. Gordon pointed out that Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the year Oct. 4, less than a month after Russia is supposed to decide on space funding for the rest of 2003 and 2004.

Gordon said it would be foolish for NASA to assume that Russia and the other space station partners will come through with the extra money, or that the shuttle will be flying again within a year of the Columbia accident. "I don't think Congress is going to be happy with you coming up here and saying you have to go through the full legislative process in a week to give us a waiver," Gordon said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (RCalif.), chairman of the space subcommittee, said he would favor a new approach in dealing with Russian proliferation concerns that emphasizes incentives rather than penalties.

"The times have changed and we have tremendous opportunity to work with the Russians," Rohrabacher said. "The potential is tremendous if we can convince the Russians to live in a responsible way."

NASA continues to express confidence in the strength of the international space station partnership and in its tentative plan to return its shuttles to flight status by early 2004.

Schumacher, who is stepping down this month from his post in external relations to serve as 0'Keefe's chief of staff, reminded lawmakers that the European Space Agency already has contracted with Rosaviakosmos to send European astronauts along with full-time crews on two upcoming Soyuz missions to the space station.

After the loss of Columbia, the European Space Agency agreed to delay the brief station visits by six months but paid Rosaviakosmos as if the flights were still on schedule. The first of those visits is now slated to take place in October, when Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque will travel to the station with the Expedition 8 crew and return with U.S. astronaut Ed Lu and Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko aboard a Soyuz capsule already docked at the orbiting laboratory. Schumacher said the second European astronaut is slated for a brief visit in spring 2004.

Fine and dandy to work with the Russians on projects, but the USA/NASA needs to get off their butts and start thinking independently again. We can't even get airborne these days, let alone put the shuttle into orbit without blowing the thing up and wasting astronaut lives.

What happened to the moon? Have we given it up just to let the Chinese make it a new homebase? It's time to get some people into NASA that have a vision for the future and quit playing low earth orbit games.

I'd love to see NASA step up and bring on something new and exciting, like they did in the 60's. They're living on a 30 year old dream with the shuttle project and it's time to move forward.

This is BonesMcCoy's formula to put the US number one in aerospace again.

1. Boycott the Paris Airshow (already done)
2. Create a new US run vehicle show that showcases superior American technologies (Use summer 2004 for the first airshow... put said airshow near populated area, but over water, so that the entire city can see the vehicles performing their maneuvers).
3. Fund R&D for new aerospace engines like scramjets, ramjets, and other propulsion technologies
4. Fund materials science basic research and mass production of alloys capable of sustaining the structural integrity of hypersonic engines.
5. Commercialize access to Low Earth Orbit (including space station)- this would mean that the vehicles carrying crew and payloads to ISS would be purchased by participating governments. This also requires restructuring of US Dept of Commerce and Dept. of Transportation laws to permit easier licensing of spaceports in various states (including VAFB in California, new locations in southern Texas, barrier island launch sites in North Carolina, and KSC/Merritt Island in Florida)
6. Budget use of commercial launch vehicles by DOD and NASA for scientific payloads intended for LEO.
7. Use NASA or DOD funded upper stages for vehicles targetted at deep space or GEO.
8. End NASA's ability to limit manned spaceflight to NASA owned vehicles
9. End NASA's monopoly on rack space at ISS. Reallocate rack space to the National Institute of Health (for medical lab racks) and to the National Academy of Science (for basic science rack space)
10. Revamp NASA's budget to reflect propulsion R&D, engineering of upper stage boosters for deep space payloads, planning of extended ISS crew support and development of plan to put international crews on the moon in this decade, elimination of ISS crew maintenance funding and STS operations costs from NASA, privatize the crew training process for manned space ops, transition orbiter flight operations out of NASA to USA, create replacement crewed space vehicle capable of reaching ISS for first flight by 2006.

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