First Segment of Mir’s Replacement Finished

MOSCOW â€”  Marking a milestone in space exploration and international cooperation, U.S. and Russian space officials Saturday unveiled the first completed segment of the new International Space Station designed to replace Russia’s aging Mir.

Paid for primarily by the United States but built in Russia, the module will be a central component of the future space station and provide a crucial link between Russian and American segments as they are added on in space.

The 20-ton module, along with the huge Proton rocket that will launch it, will be hauled by train this week from Moscow to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where final testing and assembly will be conducted before its scheduled launch in June.

In an unusual partnership, construction of the $300-million control module was managed by Boeing Co. and carried out by the Khrunichev aerospace center--two giant rivals of the Cold War arms race.

“A few years ago, nobody could have imagined that we, Khrunichev and Boeing, who had been competing with heavy bombers, would be sitting here together,� said Khrunichev General Director Anatoly I. Kiselev.

But despite their jubilation over the progress of the control module, representatives from both nations acknowledged that the planned launch could be delayed because the $800-million service module--a key component being financed and built by Russia--is two or three months behind schedule.

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Last year, delays in construction of the service module, which will provide living quarters for the astronauts on the space station, set back the schedule for the entire station by seven months, prompting some in Congress to threaten to cut off funding for the program.

The service module’s launch is scheduled for December, but once again erratic funding from the strapped Russian government has delayed construction.

Under the current timetable, the two modules constructed in Russia--along with a U.S.-built segment to be launched by a space shuttle in July--will orbit the Earth until the first crew is launched next January to begin assembling the station.

Additional components contributed by the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan are scheduled to be launched and attached to the station over a period of five years.

Designers of the control module took advantage of the seven-month delay to make improvements to the unit, enhancing its navigational system and adding a refueling capability so it can function independently if there are further problems with the service module.

The builders also attached a shield to the outside of the module to protect it from small meteorites and space junk left behind during 40 years of human spaceflight.

Unlike Mir, which was planned to last for five years but has been in use for 12, the International Space Station was designed to operate for 15 years.

Russia has sought to keep the decrepit Mir running for as long as possible despite a series of disasters, including an on-board fire and a collision with a cargo ship last year.

But faced with a chronic shortage of funds, Russian Space Agency Director Yuri N. Koptev told reporters that he expects Russia to shut Mir down in 1999 after assembly of the new station is underway.

Even so, he said, many of Mir’s problems have been resolved for the moment: Its power has been fully restored, the internal temperature is under control, and its computer is operating properly.

“We can say the state of the station is like the beginning of last year,� Koptev said. “It’s back to normal.�