TROUBLES ON THE ISS

TROUBLES ON THE ISS

Station plans
Delays
Enormous costs
Dangerous spacewalks
Less contributions

Modules (15K)

The two first segments are now in orbit and are awaiting the

10 billion was spent on drawing the station

But because of the Russian financial crisis, the U.S. has contributed 2 billion, which they were supposed to save. Now 660 million more are being sent over to get the crucial Service module ready and other modules. It has been delayed from July 1998 to April 1999 to June 1999, and now it seams to launch July 2000. Will it make it by then? Without the module the station (Zaraya and Unity) will loose altitude and plumish to the Earth. The propulsion systems onboard the FGB is not powerful enough to keep itself and Unity in orbit for more than 500 days. In it's current altitude the small drag from the atmosphere will eventually cause it to loose it's orbit and plumit to the earth. So if the Service module is delayed even more, something has to be done. NASA is planning to modify the shuttle fleet so that they have increased capability to boost the stations orbit. The "

With the situation in Russia, Boeing going 800 million over budget and the money spent planning the station under Ronald Reagan, the station comes to much more than first estimated 17,4 billion and I am sure that the figures will rise even further. The figures does not include the 28-38 shuttle launches, Russian Proton, soyuz and Progress launches over the years. Each shuttle launch costs about 420 million and including the station maintenance during it's life time it is expected that the station could end up with a total price tag of 96 billion. That means that NASA will be spending 1/7 of it's budget on the ISS.

As the contributions to Russia is soaring, Russia's contribution to the station is declining. The core program of Russia no longer includes a science power platform, 2 research laboratories and a life-support module. Russia is talking with Ukrain about constructing a laboratory together but it is not yet clear if this will happen. The Life-support module is now redundant due to modifications and changing design of other modules. Status of other modules are unclear. Russia will probably also be unable to provide all the Progress and Soyuz flights promised

Several years ago it was estimated that it would take some 80 spacewalks to complete the station in orbit. Because of this the project was almost killed in congress. To prevent pulling the plug on the project, NASA promised to change the number. They managed to change it but in the wrong direction, it is now up to 162 spacewalks. Many want to kill the ISS project, but because of all the money spent, the already begun construction of the station and the political aspects. Giving it the boot would mean canceling contracts in California, Texas, Florida, Virgina, and in the other countries participating. It would be bad for politics to give up the project. I am sure the station will run into many more delays, budget overruns and other problems but it will go up. There is no way turning back.

Here are two images showing who contributes what to the ISS
Russias contributions will probably be less than shown on the pictures

Partners disconnected modules (K15)

Partners connected modules (17K)

Related Info:
NASA | JSC | Shuttle | Shuttle-Mir | Mir

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