Russia In Space by Brian Harvey, Springer-Verlag, 拢19, ISBN
1852332034
鈥淚F you think education is expensive,鈥� goes the bumper sticker, 鈥渃onsider the
alternative鈥�. A similar comparison is often applied to Russia鈥檚 leading role in
the International Space Station project. Having the Russians among the 18
nations involved in building the ISS has been enormously challenging,
excruciatingly frustrating and surprisingly expensive. But without them many say
that the project would have been denied critical information and capabilities,
and might have led to its outright cancellation.
Judging these clashing priorities in the baffling universe of rocket science
is a tough assignment for any observer. Space writer Brian Harvey鈥檚 Russia
in Space offers a comprehensive guide to the nuts and bolts of today鈥檚
Russian space programme, plus an assessment of where the Russians now are in
space, how they got there, and where they might go next.
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Harvey begins with the progression of cosmonaut missions aboard the Mir space
station, and the development of its successor, the ISS. This detailed but
readable chronicle provides a matrix in which readers can place events made
famous by newspaper headlines and television news specials. But when Harvey
comes to dealing with Russia鈥檚 military, scientific and commercial-applications
satellite programmes, completeness wrestles with readability鈥攁nd wins.
This makes these sections鈥攚ith their Baedeker of ground bases and
cosmodromes鈥攔eference material rather than light reading for all except
true space flight fanatics.
More importantly, I would have liked a more profound discussion of the real
issues. It wasn鈥檛 just 鈥渧ociferous politicians鈥� or unreconstructed cold warriors
who raised objections to Mir鈥檚 safety in 1997. Many sceptics (I was one of them)
felt that NASA had violated its own traditional and time-tested safety
techniques.
Instead of assuming the existence of danger and requiring analysts to show
how the danger could be made safe, NASA managers assumed Mir would be safe
unless analysts could prove the existence of danger. Because the Russians
regularly withheld or even falsified safety-related information, this was an
impossible task; the game was rigged. It is a question that has profound
implications for the future of the International Space Station.
鈥淚t is possible that 1998 marked the low point of the extreme financial and
organisational pressure inflicted on the Russian space program,鈥� Harvey writes.
The turning point, he suggests, was the struggle on 25 June 1997 to save Mir
after the collision that began depressurising it. 鈥淗ad Mir been abandoned there
and then,鈥� he continues, 鈥渋t would have been a very steep mountain indeed for
the demoralised Russia ever to put cosmonauts back into space.鈥�
Harvey鈥檚 view is as sharp as it could be, so soon after the events he
describes. But he doesn鈥檛 explore the commercial benefits accruing to Russia
from its contribution to ISS. Its space industries receive $600 to
$800 million per year in Western orders, of which probably at least a
third is profit. If this really is its motivation, then for ISS, funded by their
government, the Russians can be expected to promise as much as possible and
deliver the minimum required. For their comercial customers, they will deliver
all they promise.
Nor does he directly address promotional propaganda such as the threat that
unemployed Russian rocket scientists would all be working on Iranian and other
鈥渞ogue state鈥� missile programmes if it weren鈥檛 for the ISS. But of the hundreds
of thousands of missile engineers put out of work by the collapse of the Soviet
Union, only a few were ever hired by cooperative projects. 鈥淩ogue states鈥� have
always been able to lease as many skilled space scientists as they needed.
Such themes underscore the importance of this subject in fields far beyond
mere technology. And although mixing space science and notions of Russian
secrecy may seem a recipe for hopeless complexity, Harvey has produced a useful
and timely guide for evaluating Russia as a partner in Western space
activities.