spacetoday.net: ISS partners reaffirm assembly plans

Posted: Thu, Jan 27, 2005, 8:43 AM ET (1343 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

The heads of the major space agencies involved in the International Space Station project said Wednesday they planned to press ahead with plans to complete the assembly of the station by the end of the decade. The agency heads, meeting in Montreal, said that they would work to complete the station by 2010 and "use and further evolve the ISS in a manner that meets their research and exploration objectives." That assembly deadline relies on returning the space shuttle to flight this year; while officials said they planned to limit the number of shuttle flights this would require, it wasn't clear that this meant fewer than the 25-30 flights currently estimated necessary to complete the station. A major issue left unresolved at the meeting was the need for revised arrangements for Soyuz spacecraft that current serve as lifeboats for the station; Russia's current commitment to provide such spacecraft expires next year. In a statement, agency heads said that they would rely in a future on a mix of spacecraft to resupply the station, including European and Japanese cargo craft under development as well as commercial alternatives.