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Fewer Shuttle Trips Planned for ISS Completion

Posted on: Thursday, 27 January 2005, 15:00 CST

Two years after the Columbia disaster delayed construction of the international space station, the world's top space programs backed NASA's plan Wednesday to finish building the orbital outpost by the end of the decade with as few shuttle missions as possible.

If successful, the strategy would increase the number of astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station from two to six by early 2009, improving research potential.

The Feb. 1, 2003, loss of Columbia and its seven crew members forced NASA to ground its fleet of space shuttles, the main space station assembly craft. Shuttle missions could resume between May 12 and June 3. Officials have estimated that it will take 28 missions to complete the space station.

Space-agency leaders from the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada met Wednesday in Montreal and said the job will be accomplished under new safety standards.

"The best way to minimize the risk is to minimize the number of flights," said departing NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, who becomes the chancellor of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge next month. "It's in the best interest of all partners involved to complete the assembly as promptly as we can, and that means the fewest flights."

President Bush wants NASA to finish space-station work by the end of the decade so it can focus on a new exploration initiative that would return U.S. astronauts to the moon by 2020 and prepare for human missions to Mars.

The space station's major partners met Wednesday for the first time since July, when they agreed to expand the station's crew to six. Officials reduced the crew from three to two after the Columbia disaster meant fewer supply deliveries.

Still to be resolved is the complicated issue of emergency rescues, a U.S. commitment.

Three years ago, major cost overruns forced NASA to stop working on a seven-person rescue craft. And Russia's obligation to equip the station with three-person Soyuz rescue capsules expires in April 2006.

While the partnership says using two Soyuz capsules provides the best lifeboat capability for a six-person crew, the United States can't buy the spacecraft from Russia because of provisions in the Iran Non-Proliferation Act.

Legislation passed by Congress in 2000 sanctioned Russia for exporting nuclear technology to Iran, but the United States and Russia are trying to work around the issue, said Debra Rahn, a spokeswoman for NASA's international division.

Hours before the space-agency leaders met, station astronaut Leroy Chiao and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov installed external science experiments during a successful 5 1/2 -hour spacewalk early Wednesday.

During the outing, the two men found deposits on an external vent of a Russian-made generator that converts wastewater into oxygen for breathing.

The device faltered intermittently several weeks ago when air bubbles overwhelmed an internal pump. Russian engineers will study photos of the deposits to see whether there is a link.

Chiao and Sharipov also installed a small German-made robot arm that can be controlled from Earth or in the space station. Future versions of the device might be used to repair satellites in higher orbits.

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