Originally posted by Boroda
So far it's a Russian station, we made the key structures, and only Russia has access for ISS for over then 2 years now.
Americans still don't have technology we have. Long-time life-support systems are made only by Russia now, and Americans are quite far from catching with what USSR had in late-70s.
MOSCOW (AFP) -- The International Space Station (ISS) will have to be left unmanned unless the United States provides Russia with the money to make extra flights, a Russian space official said Wednesday.
The ISS crew "will probably have to be evacuated to Earth in the second part of the year if our foreign partners do not resolve the issue of financing additional flights to the station," the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos's spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told ITAR-TASS.
Russian and United States space experts are due to discuss financing further development of the ISS at a meeting on Sunday in The Netherlands.
Gorbunov said the Russian government had "agreed to redistribute allocated budget funds from the second half of the year to the first."
However, this money is insufficient, and the United States "so far are not going to pay for additional launches," he added.
Leaving the station in an unmanned flight would be "dangerous, as the ISS can become uncontrollable," Gorbunov said.
He cited as example a recent malfunction in the heat regulation system of the ISS's US-manufactured portion that could not have been fixed in the absence of the crew.
The United States is relying on Russia to transport crew to and from the ISS orbiting space station because the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has suspended flights by its space shuttles following the explosion of the Columbia on February 1.
But Russia has said it cannot raise the money to construct the necessary additional Progress cargo ships and manned Soyuz craft.
Moscow has indicated it will need financial aid of at least 47 million dollars (44 million euros) to be able to use the ISS this year.
But NASA is refusing to finance construction of Russian spaceships to offset the freeze on US space shuttles.
Its decision is based on a 2000 US law aimed at retaliating against Russia for allegedly transferring nuclear technology to Iran.
The United States and Russia are the biggest partners in the 16-nation ISS venture.
2003 article...We paid you plenty dont see how you are laying claim to The ISS. Neither you or your components would have gotten to this point if not for US dollars. And lets not each talk about you russians sending up space tourists to the ISS and making a buck off it. I lay no claim to it as a US station. We needed your help and you needed ours.
