Slide 61 of 99

President Clinton's endorsement of the new Option A Space Station did little to help the project. In June 1993, a bid in Congress to kill the Station failed by a single vote (215-216). Scientists continued to be critical of the project, saying its benefits were more marginal than ever after the latest redesign and that the Station had lost its political mission too following the end of the Cold War. In September, NASA presented Clinton with two final options: the small 4-man US-only “Alpha” Station approved in June or the larger and much more capable 6-crew “Russian Alpha” design shown above. President Clinton chose the latter option, essentially merging the American SS Freedom and Russian “Mir-2” projects into a new International Space Station (ISS). The President also managed to strike a deal with Congress which established a fixed annual budget of $2.1 billion. The agreement has been remarkably successful; the last attempt to cancel the project was rejected in the House of Representatives in 1994.

Another view of the International Space Station. Technologically, ISS reverses the continuing trend (since 1986) toward a smaller and less capable Station. The new configuration reintroduced the US laboratory and node module into the design. ISS will have more science racks than Freedom and provide more power for experiments. The total mass in orbit is 370 metric tons, so the International Space Station weighs almost twice as much as Space Station Freedom. A big plus according to NASA was the Station now could be manned almost immediately as soon as the Russian FGB and Service Modules had been launched. In contrast, Space Station Freedom would not have been capable of supporting a permanent crew before a dozen or so modules had been launched.

The International Space Station work distribution plan from 1999. Aerospace mergers plus increased emphasis on commercial space made it easier for the new NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, to reform the Space Station and NASA in general. The Space Station Program Office in Reston, Virginia was cancelled as NASA selected Boeing (which bought the space divisions of other Station contractors such as McDonnell-Douglas and Rockwell in the 1990s) as the new Station prime contractor. Boeing's contract from 1995 contained less NASA oversight than usual while giving the company and its Space Station "integrated production teams" some financial rewards in case the projected goals are met. The Johnson Space Center now hosts the Station's new program office. All this has greatly simplified the project's cumbersome management structure, although the efforts to avoid cost overruns and delays still have not been entirely successful. Brazil joined the ISS project in 1999 and China may become a partner in the future.

Despite its additional capabilities, the International Space Station's Fiscal 1994-2000 budget was actually lower than for any of the other redesigns. However, the lower cost came at a price since ISS will not be assembled as quickly as the other options. All the other redesigns planned to end the assembly phase by 2001. The International Space Station assembly sequence will now require another five years beyond that.

1993 SPACE STATION OPTIONS SUMMARY
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COSTS
($ billions)         Freedom  A/Bus-1  Option-B  Option-C  R-Alpha
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-FY 1994-98          $15.8    $13.3    $13.3     $11.9     $10.5
-FY'94 to
 assembly complete   $22.1    $17.0    $19.3     $15.2     $19.4
-Ops. & payloads     $25.0    $13.5    $15.1     $10.2        ?
-Total lifetime cost 
 incl.marginal STS   $65      $47      $50       $41
 flight cost
-Total lifetime cost $101     $80      $87       $65
 incl.average STS
 flight cost

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MILESTONES           Freedom  A/Bus-1  Option-B  Option-C  R-Alpha
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-1st element launch     3/96    10/97     10/97      9/99     6/97
-Man-tended capacity    6/97     4/98     12/98       -       8/97
-International modules 12/99    12/99      3/01      7/00     4/00
-Permanent crew         6/00     9/00     12/01     11/99     9/97
-Assembly complete      9/00     9/00     12/01      1/01    10/01


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PERFORMANCE          Freedom  A/Bus-1  Option-B  Option-C  R-Alpha
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Orbit inclination       28.5     28.5      28.5      28.5     51.6
Crew research hr/yr     6866h    6724h     6566h     6866h
Total power (kW)        68.3       57      68.3      61.5      105
User power (kW)         34.2       31      40.3      40.9     < 45     
Habitable volume (m3)    878      760       878      1117     1200
Equipment racks
  system racks            65       59        65      50.5       51* 
  user racks              45.5     39        45.5      72       33*
  user racks @ <1uG       29        8        29        40        ?
Assembly EVA, h.         340h     224h      311h       24h    224h
Annual maintenance EVA   240h     187h      253h       80h    197h
Total assembly flights    20       16        20        10   14+12 Russian.
Logistics fligths/yr.      4        6         6         6        7


* = does not include Russian equipment racks.