Time running out for space station deal

Showing signs of increasing frustration with NASA’s financial foot-dragging, Russia’s cosmonaut training center this week staged a brief but highly visible "sit-down strike" and announced that it was suspending training for American astronauts there.

Although the order was quickly rescinded by higher-ups, the point was made: Either in cash or through some barter arrangement, the U.S. side needs to reach an agreement with Moscow on how the United States will pay Russia for impending space bills.

NASA officials were tight-lipped about the dispute.

"The subject of Russians training U.S. astronauts for Expedition 13 is part of our discussions with the Russians on the balance of contributions, and we do not comment on ongoing negotiations,” agency spokeswoman Debra Rahn wrote in an e-mail to MSNBC.com.

But the subject is being discussed much more widely than Rahn’s message indicates, and the drop-dead date has been known for years in advance. Nevertheless, the advance notice does not seem to have sparked to any progress in resolving the crisis — and with the clock ticking down, there may be no option left except to capitulate to the Russian demands.

“It is well known that Russia doesn't have any obligations to transport U.S. crew members to and from ISS after the return of Main Expedition 12 in April 2006,” explained Igor Lissov, senior editor of Moscow's Novosti Kosmonavtiki, or Cosmonautics News.

Paraphrasing ideas from an interview with Russian Space Agency official Alexei Krasnov late last year, Lisov added: “Time is critical to make some bilateral decision now, because the April 2006 Soyuz is already in production and crews must be selected and start training very soon.”

No pay means no play, the Russian space journalist explained: “Without such a decision, I can hardly see an American onboard the April 2006 Soyuz.” Although that is a full year in the future, Russian officials say the training of American astronauts for the mission must begin in the next six to eight weeks.

A game of space chicken
This week, the Russians showed NASA who holds the orbital bargaining chips.

“Training of U.S. astronauts for flights on the Russian Soyuz spaceships has been suspended for the time being,” a Star City spokesman told the Itar-Tass news agency Tuesday. “At the same time, the training of astronauts in the mockups of Russian modules of the ISS continues.”

The Russian Space Agency's press secretary, Vyacheslav Davidenko, spoke to a reporter for the Interfax news agency later in the day. Davidenko explained that "Russia's obligations toward NASA for the training of crews and their delivery aboard Soyuz spacecraft expire in 2006," and that new funding was required.

“We are awaiting a letter from NASA on this subject," Davidenko said.    

NASA officials were reportedly "shook up" over the initial announcements, and on Tuesday evening, the Russians changed their tune — partly. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Space Agency, denied that training had been affected. “We are not talking about stopping the training of NASA astronauts in Star City,” he told a reporter.

But then he added a twist, getting to the crux of the hardball negotiations that Moscow has been so good at for decades. “The Russian Space Agency is proposing,” he said, “that the U.S. space agency finance the installation of a second Soyuz rescue craft into the ISS."

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