Space Race Now Joint Venture

STAR CITY, Russia —  Five years of capitalism have created a new face for Russia’s space program, and it is starting to look a lot like its longtime rival: corporate America.

At once-secret Soviet facilities, Russian and American engineers now work together to design and build space vehicles. U.S. firms such as Lockheed Martin and Hughes Electronics collaborate with Russia on commercial satellite launches. Astronauts and cosmonauts train side by side for joint missions in space.

At the factory where Russian spacecraft are built, a huge new Proton rocket bears the freshly painted logo of the company it will serve: Motorola. At mission control, Russian scientists work with Boeing on a plan to launch rockets from an oceangoing platform that will be based in Long Beach. And in a deal with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, satellites to expand access to the Internet will be put in orbit by Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles.

What was once a space race has become a joint venture.

“International cooperation is the next step in exploring space,” said cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, a rocket engineer training for his first trip into the cosmos. “We are joining efforts and getting new expertise and experience that we could not get separately.”

During the Cold War, the space industry was one of the favored sectors of the Soviet economy, with vast resources at its disposal. The Soviet Union’s accomplishments--including putting the first human in orbit--created a sense of national pride and bolstered the Communist nation’s image as a superpower.

But Russia’s transition to a market economy has reduced the space program to less than 30% of its former size and left scientists scrambling to find ways to pay for their projects. Today, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the survival of the Russian space program hinges on its newfound partnership with the United States.

Although critics in both countries have raised questions about the increased U.S. role here, Russia has much to offer foreign partners willing to take risks: With 25 years’ experience operating manned space stations, for example, its scientists have expertise and equipment that could take the United States years and billions of dollars to duplicate.

“We must work together,” said Gen. Alexei Leonov, Russia’s greatest living cosmonaut and the first person to walk in space. “We’ll spend less using our mutual experience. It’s very beneficial for the Americans. You don’t need to invent the bicycle again, do you?”

At the heart of the cooperative effort is the planet’s biggest space project: the International Space Station, now under construction in the United States and Russia. The first units of the station are scheduled for launch next year, with the station expected to be fully operational by 2002.

But to the dismay of space scientists around the globe, the fiscal crisis that has gripped Russia is jeopardizing the station and the future of the country’s space program.

The failure of the Russian government to deliver promised funds has forced designers to announce an eight-month delay in the planned completion of the station’s crucial service module. The unit, awaiting completion at a factory in Moscow, is the one segment of the station that was to be financed and built entirely by Russia.

NASA officials are concerned that there could be even greater slippage in the schedule and will decide this month whether to spend up to $100 million to build a replacement module that could be used temporarily in assembling the station.

Financial Black Hole

In the U.S. Congress, the setback has prompted critics to question Russia’s role in the project and whether the struggling nation will be able to fulfill its 1993 commitment to help build the station. Some members of Congress have renewed efforts to scrap the program, contending it will become a financial black hole.

The orbiting station, as big as nearly two football fields, will cost at least $30 billion for its 15 partners, which also include Canada, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Germany. Floating almost 220 miles above the Earth, it will be able to house six astronauts at a time and provide seven laboratories.

The new outpost in space--dubbed the International Space Station by NASA and called Alpha by Russia--will replace Russia’s aging Mir station, which has begun to suffer serious maintenance problems after more than 11 years of continuous use.

Despite the delay of the launch until late 1998, Russian officials insist the station can still be completed more quickly and cheaply than it could without Russia’s participation. They expect to make up lost time during the assembly phase and still meet the 2002 deadline.

Russian scientists caution that the value of their contribution should not be measured just in dollars. Over the life of Russia’s seven manned stations, its experts have gathered extensive data on the logistics of space travel and the effect of prolonged flight on humans--information that until recently was a closely guarded secret.

“Twenty-five years of experience in extended manned flight should not be thrown away,” said academician Vladimir F. Utkin, Russia’s top rocket designer and director of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building. “The most important thing is we are doing this together. In space together and on Earth together, this would be the next step.”

Utkin was the Cold War designer of the “Satan” intercontinental ballistic missile--capable of striking the United States with a nuclear warhead in a matter of minutes. From Sputnik to the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” he was a key participant in the battle between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space.

Now he has become a leading advocate of international cooperation and believes the two nations missed their biggest opportunity to work together after the successful hookup of the Apollo and Soyuz capsules in 1975. “We should have started working on a joint station right away,” Utkin lamented. “But instead, we spent 21 years competing with each other.”

A Matter of Necessity

Leonov, commander of the Soyuz capsule during the historic union, notes it was only a few years ago that the two rivals were racing to put high-tech weapons into orbit--not space stations devoted to science.

“Now, thanks to the fact that two powerful states have become partners, ‘Star Wars’ perished into the past, all our similar plans vanished, and it’s even laughable to think about it,” Leonov said. “Thanks to the fact that we started to work jointly, we can understand each other better.”

For Russia’s space program, working with the United States has become a matter of necessity. Russia once launched more satellites into orbit each year than any other nation, but no longer. Today, 80% of the technology orbiting Earth is American in origin, said Russian Space Agency Director Yuri N. Koptev.

Last year, nearly half the agency’s budget, $470 million, came from projects with its foreign partners. This year, the agency’s outside revenues are expected to reach $640 million, and President Boris N. Yeltsin has set a goal of $1 billion by the year 2000.

In effect, revenues from ventures with American firms are helping to subsidize many Russian companies--and the space station--while they wait for overdue payments from their government.

Lauding the Low Cost

Companies working with the Russian space program read like a who’s who of the U.S. aerospace and communications industries. American firms laud the lower cost of doing business in Russia and the reliability of its equipment, such as the workhorse Proton rocket.

“I’m hard pressed to think of a company that is not over there talking or pursuing a joint venture,” said John Schumacher, associate NASA administrator, from his office in Washington.

Not every launch goes smoothly. A U.S. communications satellite, part of the FAI telecommunications system, was left behind on Earth when its Cosmos-3M rocket took off last month because all the copious paperwork required by the Russians had not been completed.

Russia’s Mars 96 probe that crashed to Earth last year moments after takeoff was a major catastrophe for the country’s space program, but the Proton rocket that launched it was cleared of responsibility for the failure.

Some scientists say a replacement for the Proton rocket is needed because when it falls to Earth after takeoff, its unspent fuel is highly toxic to plant and animal life.

But most U.S. firms that have signed up with Russia are enthusiastic about the Russians’ experience in launching satellites and the relatively low cost compared with what other countries charge.

“They have a very good launch vehicle,” said Julie Andrews, a San Diego spokeswoman for International Launch Systems, which markets the Proton rocket in the United States. “The Proton is tried and tested. It’s been the mainstay of the Russian space program for many years.”

Mark Sullivan, a Pratt & Whitney spokesman, said his company is pleased with progress on a joint venture to convert one of Russia’s powerful engines for use on the Atlas rocket. “It just made sense when Russia opened up to see if there was something we could do together,” he said.

Russian officials acknowledge that without the cooperation of the United States--and its permission to launch high-tech American satellites--the Russian space program would be on the verge of collapse. If Russia cannot keep its commitment to the International Space Station, agency officials fear they will lose the chance to participate in other joint ventures.

“If we act in a way that dooms the project,” Koptev said, “this will affect the attitude toward us on other matters, and I am sure we will have difficulties selling our services in the market.”

At the Khrunichev Space Center, the formerly top-secret assembly complex in Moscow, two of the space station’s first four modules are under construction.

The station’s energy block, the first station element scheduled for launch, is being built by Russia with U.S. funds under Boeing’s management. Nearing completion, it is now in the final testing stage.

At the other end of the vast Khrunichev workshop, the 40-foot-long aluminum-and-magnesium shell of the tardy service module sits quietly on a scaffold awaiting its “stuffing”--the electronic components, computers and interior furnishings needed for the 15 years or more it will be in orbit.

Work has come almost to a standstill as Russia struggles to find the money to complete the module, which is supposed to provide the space station’s propulsion, navigation and living quarters.

Koptev has pleaded with the government to release promised funds, but the government is hard pressed to find cash for the space program when it is months behind in paying wages and pensions. Banks have agreed to lend the project $139 million against government guarantees, and Yeltsin recently pledged an additional $122 million, but the money has been slow in materializing.

“I think a certain number of leaders thought that cooperation in space with the Americans would provide Russia with money and would not require money from the government budget,” said Sergei Gromov, a spokesman for RSC Energia, the firm overseeing completion of the module. “That kind of understanding would explain the actions of the government.”

Russia’s uneven transition to capitalism has also created problems for the station. With the collapse of the planned economy, factories governed by Russia’s new law of supply and demand have stopped making many of the specialized items needed for the station. And with the breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 nations, factories that once produced major aerospace components are now located in other countries.

The lack of money has made it difficult to purchase parts from abroad or set up factories to produce them. As a result, Russia plans to recycle certain hard-to-get components, such as the costly guidance systems for cargo capsules. These will be dismantled by astronauts in space and sent back to Earth on U.S. shuttles.

When Russia joined the project, officials said its participation would accelerate completion of the station by two years and save $2.5 billion. But now, each month of delay adds nearly $100 million to U.S. costs.

Cost of Going It Alone

For the United States, jettisoning Russia and continuing with the station would not necessarily improve matters, because it could be more costly and time-consuming to duplicate equipment Russia has already developed.

For example, Russia has agreed to provide the station’s rescue vehicle, a Soyuz capsule that would be available in an emergency to bring the astronauts back to Earth. But the United States would not have such a vehicle readily available, because it has emphasized the space shuttle over capsules.

“The Americans returned from the moon in a similar ship, but production stopped 20 years ago,” Gromov said. “If you need a rescue ship, it must be totally reliable. The reliability can only be tested by experiments, and experiments mean time. If the Americans decide to build a station without us, this will result in huge delays.”

Russian scientists note that the United States has experienced its own problem of delays when it comes to building space stations. In 1988, the United States began designing the Freedom station and spent $9 billion over the next five years without ever reaching the point of production.

In 1993, with Congress on the verge of scrapping the project, the Clinton administration merged Freedom with plans for the International Space Station, joining with Russia and other partner nations.

“Now, only 3 1/2 years have passed, and we are speaking of specific launch dates,” said Alexei B. Krasnov, an official with the Russian Space Agency. “That is a vivid comparison of how we can work together.”

At Star City, the famous closed city of the cosmonauts 14 miles east of Moscow, American and Russian astronauts prepare together for joint missions to Mir and the International Space Station.

Yuri Gidzenko, 35, is training to be part of the first crew sent to the new station, where he and his colleagues from America and Europe will begin assembling the four modules.

Cheerful despite the delay in his planned launch, the veteran of one shuttle-Mir mission is optimistic about the future of joint space exploration. International cooperation will help preserve Russia’s space program, he said, while helping the United States advance its space program further.

“Smart people in the United States understand it is impossible to do this space station without Russia,” Gidzenko said. “Smart people in Russia understand that if we quit the program, we will find ourselves in the backyard of space science.”

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Some Assembly Required

In mid-1998, space shuttles will begin hauling components of the International Space Station into space. It will require 44 flights over the course of 5 years to assemble the permanently orbiting research laboratory--a cooperative effort by 15 nations. In space, astronauts operating remotely controlled robots will fit the pieces together, creating a habitat--118 yards by 81 yards--for 3-6 researchers. Oxygen, food and water will be imported periodically and all waste products returned to Earth. For safety, a Russian spacecraft will remain docked at the station, ready to return to Earth at any time.

What They Provide (United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Europe)

* Orbit height: Approximately 190 nautical miles above the Earth (217 statue miles).

* Construction: Special aluminum alloys, some pieces weighing tens of thousands of pounds, some parts almost as thin as the walls of a soda can.

* On the ground: Mission control centers in Houston and Moscow will provide assistance to the astronauts.

Columbus Orbital Facility: 2,700 cubic-foot work space will be launched on a rocket, then towed into position (Europe)

Remote manipulator system: Two remotely-controlled robots to install large station parts (Canada)

Experiment module: 4,500 cubic-foot environment for conducting experiments and performing research (Japan)

Crew’s quarters: 3,812 cubic-foot quarters for eating, sleeping, relaxation, showers and health care (United States)

Service module: Living and working space for three crew members. Problems with this module could delay construction of the space station (United States)

Solar panels: Convert the sun’s light into electricity (Russia)

Energy Block: The first space station element scheduled for launch (Russia)

Radiators: Expell space station’s excess heat (United States)

121.4 ft.: Approximate scale of space shuttle to spacecraft

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Key Moments in Russian Space Program

Oct. 4, 1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnick, becoming the first nation to put a satellite in orbit.

April 12, 1961: Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is the first person to orbit the Earth.

March 18, 1965: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov is the first to walk in space.

April 24, 1967: Cosmonaut Vladimir Komorav becomes the first to die on a space mission.

July 20, 1969: United States beats the Soviets to the moon.

April 19, 1971: Soviet Union launches first manned space station. The three cosmonauts die during return to Earth.

July 15, 1975: In the first major cooperative effort, Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft hook up in space. But afterward, efforts of U.S. and Russian experts to work together are abandoned for nearly two decades.

Feb. 20, 1986: Space station Mir is launched. It remains in use 11 years later.

Sept. 2, 1993: Russia and the U.S. announce plans for International Space Station.

Nov. 17, 1996: The Russian Mars96 probe crashes to Earth moments after take-off.

Source: NASA

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How U.S. Firms Have Helped

Since the end of the Cold War, major American aerospace and communications companies have joined with Russian enterprises in a variety of space projects. Here are some of the major programs:

* Lockheed Martin: Has joined with Russian companies to market the launch of satellites using the powerful and reliable Proton rocket.

* Boeing: Is construction manager of the first module of the International Space Station. Boeing is also a partner with Russian, Ukranian and Norwegian firms to build Sea Launch, the first ocean-going launch pad for rockets. The platform will be based in Long Beach, with the first launch planned for late 1998.

* Hughes Electronics: Became the first U.S. company to launch a satellite using the Russian Proton rocket in April, 1996. Hughes has signed up for three more Proton launches this year and for Sea Launch’s first 10 launches.

* Motorola: Will use the Proton rocket to launch 21 of 66 satellites for its Iridium satellite phone network, designed to let customers receive phone calls anywhere on the planet.

* Teledesic: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and cellular entrepreneur Craig McCaw have formed a joint venture with Russia and the Ukraine to convert SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles to launch satellites that would expand global access to the Internet.

* Pratt-Whitney: Has entered a joint venture to adapt the powerful and reliable Russian RD-180 rocket engine for use on the Atlas rocket in the United States.