Agreement on U.S.-Russian Space Cooperation Signed

Vice President Gore and several senior Administration officials were in Moscow this week to sign a series of cooperative agreements with the Russians. Although the accords have been under discussion for some time, the results of Russia’s recent parliamentary elections seems to make friendly collaborations with the West all the more timely and important.

The agreements, fostering cooperation in space and aeronautics activities, nuclear and other forms of energy, science projects, and business, were signed on December 16. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin signed two protocols, one for cooperation on aeronautical research and one regarding collaboration on the space station program.

The latter agreement, also signed by Russian Space Agency Director General Yuri Koptev, confirms previously-discussed plans for Phase One of a three-phase program leading up to a “world” space station (see FYI #149.) It allows for up to ten space shuttle flights to the Russian Space Station MIR-1 in preparation for the joint space station. Russian cosmonauts will fly on the shuttle, and U.S. astronauts will spend a total of 24 months aboard the Russian station, beginning with a three-month stay planned for 1995. The U.S. will pay Russian $100 million annually for the next four years for hardware, services, and access to MIR-1.

Goldin characterized the collaboration as “a very significant step in expanding our human spaceflight cooperation with our Russian friends. . . These activities will provide valuable experience for the construction and operation of the international space station.”

Among the cooperative space activities scheduled, in 1995 the shuttle will perform a preliminary rendezvous with MIR-1, coming within a “safe distance” of the Russian station. In a later mission the same year, the shuttle will actually dock with MIR-1, bringing new equipment. The mission might include spacewalks to upgrade MIR’s solar arrays.

The space shuttle will dock with MIR-1 as many as ten times, for purposes of crew exchange, experiments, return of samples, and resupply of equipment. The Russian station will be equipped with U.S. scientific instruments for experiments in biotechnology, biomedical sciences, materials sciences, and Earth observation.

NASA and the Russian Space Agency will also begin to work this year on joint development of spacecraft environmental controls, life support systems, a common space suit, and a joint crew medical support program.

Some collaborative activities are already underway. Under the terms of a 1992 space agreement, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev is currently in Houston, training to fly on a U.S. shuttle flight in January 1994.