Capability and Fair Return in European and International Space Cooperation: the Example of Columbus
- Paper number
IAC-08.E8.1.3
- Author
Dr. Lesley Jane Smith, University of Bremen, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Cristian Bank , Astrium Space Transportation, Germany
- Year
2008
- Abstract
With the successful launch of COLUMBUS and ATV, Europe has become a partner in the operations of the International Space Station. Payloads, spare parts and consumables for the entire ISS are delivered by ATV. COLUMBUS provides a working space not only for European scientists, but also for the international partners; the European astronaut corps participates in the operation and utilization of the ISS. By doing so, Europe has demonstrated a political will to participate in the peaceful, cooperative endeavour of human spaceflight, following the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Russia and the United States on the ISS. Although Europe has acquired a certain competence level in the area of human spaceflight through its own assets, one key asset is still lacking a solution: the launch and return of its astronauts. So far, European astronauts depend upon being launched by the US Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, which is also part of the IGA. This makes utilization of COLUMBUS difficult in the long run. Europe needs to decide if crew transport should be part of its human spaceflight activities. Such capabilities could be acquired through cooperation with other space-faring nations. In 2004, Russia has expressed such an invitation to Europe to jointly develop a new generation of spacecraft to follow the Soyuz family, at that stage under the name of Kliper. A cooperation of this kind would be governed by principles already applied to the ISS, such as a “no exchange of funds” principle, leading to barter agreements rather than classical prime contractor - supplier contracts. Barter agreements are difficult to achieve, as the value of hardware development, services, engineering support, risk allocations etc. have to be agreed. Some lessons could be learned from previous projects such as ISS or Spacelab. This presentation describes what are the challenges in elaborating a barter agreement for a crew transport vehicle from an industrial point of view – among them, the high frequency of deliveries, liability and risk issues, and most of all, the fair share in the utilization of the system. It also draws some conclusions from the ISS deals, again viewed from an industrial perspective.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.E8.1.3.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.