The Russian Council of Chief Rocket Designers has announced that the International Space Station (ISS) is set to become permanently manned.
The Russian rocket and space corporation Energiya has circulated a press release saying that the Council on Tuesday approved the Energiya- proposed schedule for preparing a Soyuz TM space vehicle and training the long-duration crew that is to be first to head for the ISS. The Soyuz TM is scheduled for launch on October 30.
The Council has also drawn up plans for launching Russian supply rockets to the ISS this year, for equipping the Russian segment of the ISS and for implementing the station’s flight program.
The launch of the Progress M1-4 supply rocket carrying bring food, water, fuel and equipment up to the space station has been set for the middle of November. Another supply ship, the Progress M-44, bearing similar cargo bound for the ISS, will lift off in the middle of this coming February.
The second long-duration expedition will be launched and the first one return to Earth next February on a U.S. space shuttle.
The chief designers said that Energiya and the enterprises involved in the ISS project have tapped out their financial resources under Russia’s ISS-related commitments, as a result of which the work to implement the project may be put on ice.
