Space station cost-cutting

Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russia is offering less expensive components for the international space station in a bid to prevent reductions in the 16-nation project, Russia’s top space official said Thursday.

The Russian offer comes with NASA threatening to cut its budget for the station.

Russia’s own money problems have repeatedly held up work on the international station. But now it has proposed using a backup of the station’s cargo module, an additional Soyuz escape capsule and other parts to expand the station to a planned crew capacity of six instead of the current three by 2004, said Russian Aerospace Agency director Yuri Koptev.

With space station budget overruns topping $4 billion in the next five years, NASA is being forced to scale back on research and commercialization to meet President Bush’s budget. The planned cuts would also eliminate a U.S.-funded lifeboat for the space station and expanded living quarters.

The cuts have caused concern among other participants in the project, who fear they would mean fewer seats for their astronauts and less opportunity to do research. Koptev said Russia shared this concern.

"Building up the station without increasing the number of the crew means that no time is left for any scientific programs, because all the crew’s time is spent on maintaining the station," Koptev said.

He said the proposed Russian components would be up to 2 1/2times cheaper than the U.S.-designed ones. He said participants in the project will meet in October to discuss the Russian proposals.

In the past, it has been Russia that put the entire project behind schedule. The service module, which houses the crew, went into orbit on July 12, 2000, after more than two years of delay caused by Russian government funding shortages.