Russia to annually deliver fuel to ISS until 2010

Until the year 2010, Russia will annually deliver the necessary fuel to the International Space Station /ISS/ and will deliver manned space ships ensuring security for astronauts working on the ISS.

This was disclosed on Tuesday night by Head of Rosaviakosmos Yury Koptev upon his return from Tokyo. He was discussing the prospects for the construction and maintenance of the ISS until the year 2010 at a meeting of the "Great Five" space agencies from Russia, USA, Canada, Japan and the Western European United Space Agency /ESA/.

"Every year starting from 2003 and until 2010, Russia will be constructing three "Progress" serial space ships to deliver the fuel necessary for the station's operation on the orbit," Koptev said.

Moreover, according to him, Russia will produce 2 manned space ships "Souyz-TMA" annually until 2007 and four ships annually from 2007 till 2010. The ships will be delivered to the station in order to ensure security for astronauts working at the station.

The increase of the "security ships" deliveries starting from 2007 is connected with the fact, that Japan, USA and ESA will build three extra modules and the number of the permanent crew members of the station will double up to 6 persons.

Meanwhile, the Russian sponsorship of the ISS construction makes only possible to build space ships and is not enough to build a Russian module on the station, Koptev added.