Russians Propose Using Mir in Space Station Redesign

In a potentially serious setback to the international space station program, Russia proposed Friday a redesign that would use its existing Mir spacecraft as the initial building block.

The use of Mir would represent a major departure from existing plans to build the station from scratch. Such a change could be politically lethal, given the commitments made by the Clinton administration to Congress that the station design would not be changed.

Moreover, the use of Mir essentially would make the space station a Russian-controlled platform, a prospect sure to incense conservative Republican lawmakers who already are concerned over the resurgence of Bolshevik sentiment in Russia.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has insisted that the space station effort be led by the United States and that it ultimately be controlled from Johnson Space Center in Houston with a U.S. official as mission director.

A high-level Russian delegation made their proposal to Wilbur Trafton, NASA’s space station chief, at a meeting Friday in Houston.

In a brief statement, Trafton said that NASA would discuss technical details of the Russian proposal and that an evaluation would be provided to NASA chief Daniel S. Goldin. No timetable for the discussion or evaluation was provided.

John Pike, a space expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said that the Russian proposal is technically sound because it would enable the station to be occupied by astronauts immediately, as opposed to waiting for several years during construction.

But Pike acknowledged that the Russian proposal takes NASA into a political minefield because Republican lawmakers are likely to resist yet another redesign after a decade of such changes.

Earlier this week, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls the NASA budget, said in an interview that he would take a dim view of any Russian proposal that would involve a major change to the program, saying that “a deal is a deal.”