Europe Postpones Space Station Missions
Posted on: Friday, 28 February 2003, 06:00 CST
PARIS (AFP) -- The European Space Agency (ESA) said Friday that upcoming trips to the International Space Station (ISS) by two of its astronauts would be postponed by six months to help keep the facility operational following the US shuttle disaster.
The break-up of the Columbia on February 1 prompted NASA to ground its shuttle fleet, a decision that is having a big effect on the programme to assemble the ISS and rotate its crews.
One of the operations that has been scrapped is a trip to the ISS in March by the space shuttle Discovery, which was to exchange the present three-man crew aboard the station and replace it with a new one.
That means that the crew rotation will be carried out by a Russian Soyuz, due to be launched in late April or May, ESA said.
ESA had a seat on the Soyuz flight, which it has now given over to an American astronaut, who will stay onboard the ISS with a Russian cosmonaut to keep essential systems ticking over.
The European astronaut rostered for the Soyuz flight in April was Pedro Duque of Spain.
His mission will now take place in October. The ESA astronaut rostered for the October flight, Andre Kuipers of The Netherlands, will instead fly in spring 2004, ESA said in a press release.
"The agreement was made in the interest of a smooth continuation of Space Station operation and utilisation," Joerg Feustel-Buechl, ESA's director of human space flight, said.
"It should be seen as a sign of the close cooperation and solidarity among the International Space Station partners."
A question mark remains over when a third ESA astronaut, Christer Fuglesang of Sweden, will fly.
His ISS mission was originally scheduled for July 2003, aboard the shuttle Atlantis. He is "currently on standby and continues his training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston," ESA said.
The United States and Russia are the biggest partners in the ISS venture, notably providing the transport.
Europe is supplying a science module and sending up its astronauts, on shuttle and Soyuz flights, to carry out experiments or help in the station assembly.
On Thursday, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced details of the April/May Soyuz flight, saying "We have to assume that the shuttle will be grounded for an extended period of time."
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