It's been April since the last update. Are we still two years away, or are we now a year and five months away?
Quote from: PeterAlt on 11/06/2014 07:43 pmIt's been April since the last update. Are we still two years away, or are we now a year and five months away?February 2017 is the current official launch date.
Wow. So it's stopped slipping one year per year and is now slipping a year and ahalf per year? Sheesh.
Quote from: owais.usmani on 11/09/2014 06:12 pmQuote from: PeterAlt on 11/06/2014 07:43 pmIt's been April since the last update. Are we still two years away, or are we now a year and five months away?February 2017 is the current official launch date.Confirmed by industry sources as an official NET. However, signals are coming in from contractors that the folks at Khrunichev have (and there is that quote again) "zero confidence in that date". Khrunichev workbees working on a schedule that has MLM launch in december 2017.Understood from one source that the refit sees a 50 percent rebuild of the MLM module.
At the heart of the latest plan is the botched construction of the Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM, the Russia's next big piece of the International Space Station, ISS. After many years of delays, the price tag for the MLM project ballooned to one billion rubles, however the all-but-completed module had to be grounded until at least 2017 due to severe quality control problems during its manufacturing at GKNPTs Khrunichev in Moscow. Repairs of the module were estimated at another billion rubles and GKNPTs Khrunichev was expected to cover this cost from its own reserves. However, the nearly bankrupt company came back with an announcement that it already owed around a billion Euro and would not be able to pay for the future work. Even if repaired and successfully launched, the MLM module, which would have taken more than two decades to build, could arrive at the ISS on the eve of its retirement.As an alternative, Russian space officials came up with a new scheme to build a whole new station around the MLM, instead of launching it to the ISS. The project with an estimated price tag from four to five billion rubles would cover a five-year delay in the construction of the ISS. The new Russian station would also utilize all future Russian modules, which were expected to follow MLM to the ISS, such as the Node Module, UM; the Science and Power Module, NEM; an Inflatable Habitat, and the OKA-T laboratory.
According to schemes available in L2 documents, the docking system seems to be new. It looks like an APAS, but with four spade-shaped guides instead of three.I join a snapshot from a L2 document. If it's a bad idea, feel free to delete.
I defies belief how a company with so much experience building space station modules (Khrunichev) could spend so long on the MLM, and still get it so catastrophically wrong.
If Russia really is going to pull out of the ISS in 2020, then they might as well not bother launching MLM to the ISS at all, and instead use it as the base for a new station.
Quote from: Space Pete on 12/22/2014 07:14 pmIf Russia really is going to pull out of the ISS in 2020, then they might as well not bother launching MLM to the ISS at all, and instead use it as the base for a new station.IMO that is exactly what will eventually happen. Finally launching MLM less than three years before the end of ISS makes no sense at all.
Is there an alternate plan for getting the European robotic arm to ISS?
I feel sorry for the European Robotic Arm team.
And is it really still needed on the ISS after 2017 ?
If MLM launches, has anyone ever stated reservations about docking (I assume Kurs-style) such a large mass at right angles to the station's main axis?