An orbiting rust bucket long past its use-by date: that, at least, is how some see Mir, and NASA has certainly washed its hands of the aged Russian space station. But Jeffrey Manber, president of the company that has come up with the money to keep Mir in space, sees it as a fantastic symbol of the new world order-and a canny investment. This month, MirCorp announced thatit鈥檚 organising the first space holiday with former American space engineer Dennis Tito planning to blast off for Mir early next year. Manber talks to Hazel Muir about Mir鈥檚 future-and why he has a few bones to pick with the US space agency.
How did you get involved with the Russians in space?
I鈥檓 a businessman, but I got into space because I was fascinated by frontiers. I had already successfully created several companies when I was approached in 1988 by a small company called Payload Systems in Boston. They said they wanted me to help them out with a commercial agreement they had secretly negotiated with the Soviet government under Gorbachev to do commercial research on the new Soviet space station, Mir. We reached a classic business agreement in about four weeks. It was wonderful. It was like stepping into the future for those of us in the commercial space business. After that, I worked with the Russian space technology company Energia for some eight years and helped it to privatise. I enjoy finding a niche where you can compete against NASA and create a company. And I am extremely proud that I have worked for nearly two decades in the space business without ever working for NASA.
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So what鈥檚 so wrong with NASA?
I bought one of NASA鈥檚 promises in 1980-we all believed the shuttle was going to fly up to 50 times a year because NASA said so. But they couldn鈥檛 deliver on their technological promises. The shuttle flew twice in 1981. The bureaucracy of NASA was becoming apparent. More unexpectedly, it was fighting private companies. For instance, it kept lowering its pricing on satellite launches until it was giving them away. It quickly became obvious that the chief obstacle to the commercialisation of space was NASA. I certainly question why the US has a space agency. Space and the Olympics-those are two things government loves to play with. But I want space to be the domain of business and I鈥檒l fight for that throughout my whole career. The Russian space industry is now completely commercial. It鈥檚 terribly ironic that the American view is that this is bad news. A year and half ago, the situation was so bad between the Russians and Americans in space that I left Energia.
How come you鈥檙e now back in the driving seat with MirCorp?
I鈥檇 reluctantly realised that there was no future business between the US and Russia in space. But then I was approached by a non-profit organisation that thought allowing the world鈥檚 only space station to fall into the ocean because of a lack of money was a disgrace. I said if there鈥檚 money, they can discuss it, and we brought in the venture capital firm Gold & Appel.
What makes you think Mir can be a commercial success?
At first, I thought that a commercially funded space station was absurd. But then I began thinking about Mir not as a space station but as a symbol. Mir is known throughout the world-the brand name is worth tens and twenties of millions of dollars. And renovating Mir is a story that no one will ever forget-it鈥檚 like the Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower and an extraordinary symbol of the end of the Cold War, of peace, of international cooperation. It was home to over 100 men and women from 16 countries, who came there to live and work and dream in space. Bucking this internationalism in the post-Cold-War era looks jingoistic, and feels counterproductive to doing business.
How much money have you raised so far, and what will you get for your investment?
The total investment so far is more than $30 million. There are two major individual investors, and in the next few weeks we expect to have three or four more. We signed the lease in London on 17 February-and the lease gives us 100 per cent of the resources of Mir for the life of the station. We will have to pay roughly $150 million a year. But the Mir station still belongs to the Russian government. We didn鈥檛 want to have a London Bridge situation. It is not for sale. Nor do we want to buy it, because we would inherit the liability for taking it out of orbit, which we don鈥檛 wish to be responsible for in the event that we fail in the marketplace.
You鈥檝e already got the first privately funded mission off the ground when two cosmonauts went to check out Mir in April. How did you feel when they stepped onto the station?
I was very nervous when they opened the hatch-we didn鈥檛 know exactly what we would find because the station had been unmanned for nine months. But they opened the hatch and said: 鈥淭he temperature is comfortable, there is very little condensation, we thank MirCorp for making this a reality.鈥� It was the highlight of my professional career.
What work is still to be done?
The cosmonauts found the source of a leak and carried out repairs, and the computers are working. We still have to make sure the life-support systems are fine, replace some of the air units, and we want to renovate some of the computers. We want to get the cables out of there and get modern cables in. To cut the costs, we are sponsoring a project that will fly at the end of the year and deploy a tether from Mir. If it鈥檚 successful, it will generate electric currents that will reduce the need for fuel ships.
But can the ageing Mir ever have all the comforts of the future International Space Station?
Mir was made in modules and eventually we will start building new ones. We can build a new module for $100 million, and replace the core module-which is 14 years old-in about two years. Then the average age of the Mir modules is five years old. We鈥檇 have a five-year-old station for about $250 million. Compare that with the $4 billion a year Boeing is getting for the International Space Station. But, of course, if you are Lockheed or Boeing or any other big contractor you have every reason to support the multibillion-dollar space station contract. If an engineer said to the vice-chairman of Boeing, 鈥淚 have a plan to keep Mir in orbit for $150 million,鈥� the guy is going to get thrown out of the door. If you are part of the status quo in the space business, you want Mir down.
Suppose I want to go to Mir. What do I have to do?
You鈥檇 have to pay between $20 and $30 million.
Then you鈥檇 have to train for three months minimum, you鈥檇 have to learn some Russian and you鈥檇 have to train with a Russian crew. Then you鈥檇 go up to Mir on a crew exchange and spend between a week and 10 days in space before coming back down. We believe that there will be a market for about two people a year. Dennis Tito will go next year, and we have strong interest from a British person who鈥檚 in the international film production business.
And you also have plans to use the station for advertising?
Yes-just as in a football stadium, where you have billboards or logos on the team strips. Perhaps an advertiser could name a module. We were approached by a soft-core porn magazine-they wanted the cosmonauts to read it. That鈥檚 one I have no problems associating with, but not in the beginning. I don鈥檛 want the comedians on evening television saying: 鈥淥h, look what the new cosmonauts are doing, they鈥檙e reading girlie magazines.鈥� But attitudes will change over the next few months-if we don鈥檛 fail.
What other plans do you have for the revamped Mir?
We鈥檒l have traditional uses of the station, such as research on pharmaceuticals and gallium arsenide chips. Space shuttle missions last about 10 days, but pharmaceuticals companies are interested in growing crystals for a few months and our commercial set-up will encourage them. The first by-law of MirCorp is no military research. Let the shuttle do military research. We are also going to have the world鈥檚 first space Internet portal to send live data to and from the station.
Have you had any more unusual suggestions?
R. Chan Tysor, president of Houston-based company Celestis, which plans to send the ashes of cremated people into orbit round Earth, is interested in using Mir for launches. We will probably do that. Why not? But there are a lot of well-meaning people who don鈥檛 understand the seriousness of this and we鈥檝e had to say, 鈥淣o, we are not going to send a couple up to have sex.鈥� There have also been a lot of proposals about gambling. You could have a blackjack game or roulette table on Mir and have the world watching live on the Net and everybody around the world would bet on the outcome. But we are torn on that-we don鈥檛 know whether it suits our marketing.
And is it true that MirCorp is planning to go public?
Yes, we鈥檙e hoping that shares will go on sale in the middle of next year. We are planning that people鈥檚 stock certificates will come from Mir and be signed by cosmonauts. It will have extraordinary demand and our bankers are telling us we鈥檒l get about $500 million.
How do you respond to NASA鈥檚 complaint that the continuing missions to Mir are using up rockets intended for the ISS?
Isn鈥檛 that good news? NASA is concerned that MirCorp is cannibalising the resources for ISS. If NASA chief Dan Goldin is briefed incorrectly, we become the very nightmare of taking space away from the government. But in fact we are everything Goldin wants. He said that once the ISS is built, he will turn it over to the private sector. Mir is already built and Mir has been turned over to the private sector-it is Goldin鈥檚 vision of a peopled space station. And because of MirCorp, the cosmonaut training centre Star City is humming and the Energia people are getting paid. It is hypocritical and short-sighted of NASA and the US Congress to accuse the Russian government of not honouring the commitment to the ISS because it has no money when NASA is fighting a source of funding that keeps the production lines and expertise open.
So when are you going to Mir?
A while ago I told the MirCorp board that I should go to inspect the property. But they just said 鈥渘ice try鈥�.