Progress
Vehicles May Be In Short Supply
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MirCorp expects to
need more Progress spacecraft than originally planned to reboost the
Mir space station's orbit. Mir's orbit has been decaying faster than
predicted because of atmospheric drag has increased due to solar
activity expansion of the upper atmosphere. The need for additional
Progress flights poses the issue of whether RSC Energia will be able
to meet the delivery of Progress vehicles to support cargo flights
for both Mir and the International Space Station. Energia has the
capacity to meet the needs of both stations. Energia officials have
said that the Russian government has been slow to pay for the
Progress and Soyuz flights to ISS, to the point where the company
has been forced to pay for those flights themselves.
 MirCorp
has a Progress currently scheduled for the middle of October.
MirCorp is about two weeks behind on its payments to Energia, which
is also MirCorp's majority shareholder. MirCorp expects to have the
funds soon to pay for the upcoming October Progress flight.
MirCorp
will need to fund more Progress flights than originally planned to
maintain the station's orbit. MirCorp has commented that if no
Progress spacecraft were launched before December, the station orbit
would drop to low to be controlled. This may put strain on the
company's finances since it has had not yet attracted new investors,
however current investors are expected to invest tens of millions of
dollars into then company to make up for the current shortfall. The
funding shortfall has caused MirCorp to scale back its plans for
upcoming missions to the station. The next crew scheduled to launch
to Mir was to spend several months on the station, but that mission
has been reduced to two weeks. That flight will largely be supported
by Dennis Tito, a California businessman who has paid US$20 million
to be the first commercial space tourist to visit the station.
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