But Company Making Soyuz Vehicles Faces Financial Peril, Needs Cash Soon

Two Second-Generation Space Travelers Make Return Trip On Earth-Bound Soyuz

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft returned International Space Station crew members to Earth in a gentle landing that contrasted markedly with the dangerous steep descents of the two prior reentries and landings of Soyuz vehicles.

(Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, April 21, 2008.)

But that good news was tempered by an announcement by the maker of Soyuz spacecraft that it is running low on money and facing a cash crunch that could halt production of the vehicles after the next two.

This isn’t a welcome development for NASA, which just received permission from Congress to negotiate a deal with Russia to transport U.S. astronauts to the space station (it was built with $100 billion of U.S. funds) from 2012 until the next-generation American spaceship system Orion-Ares can begin manned flights, perhaps in 2015.

When the U.S. space shuttle fleet retires by a mandated 2010 deadline, NASA won’t be able to transport a single astronaut even to low Earth orbit for half a decade, and thus will have to depend on Russia, and less than friendly nation to take astronauts to and from the station.

Returning from lengthy stays aboard the station as part of Expedition 17 were two Russian cosmonauts, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononeko, who landed their Soyuz spacecraft at its targeted site on the steppes of Kazakhstan after completing 199 days in orbit and 197 days on the station.

Also on the Soyuz was Richard Garriott, who paid the Russian Federal Space Agency $35 million to spend 10 days on the station. Richard is the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who was a member of the Skylab-3 crew in 1973. The elder Garriott was on hand at the landing site to welcome his son back to Earth.

Volkov, too, is the son of a former cosmonaut, Alexander Volkov.

Before undocking, the returning crew bid farewell to the new station residents. The new crew consists of Expedition 18 Commander and U.S. astronaut E. Michael Fincke, and Expedition 18 Flight Engineers Greg Chamitoff, also a U.S. astronaut, and Yury Lonchakov, a Russian cosmonaut.

Expedition 18’s main focus is to prepare the station to house six crew members on long-duration missions beginning next spring.

That will double the housing capacity of the space station, which long has sheltered just three crew members at a time. The increased capacity will be made possible by delivery of crew quarters furnishings by Space Shuttle Endeavour. (Please see story in this issue.)

Separately, the maker of the Soyuz spacecraft warned that it is running low on funds, Agence France Presse reported.

Energiya announced that it has two more Soyuz vehicles in production, but the firm has run out of funds to build any more after that. So the company needs either advance payments for future Soyuz flights, or some kind of financing arrangements. Funds are needed within the next two or three weeks.