THE 1993 INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION [I.S.S.] PLAN
Notes:
President Clinton's endorsement of the new Option A Space Station did little to help the project. In June 1993, a bid in Congress to kill the Station failed by a single vote (215-216). Scientists continued to be critical of the project, saying its benefits were more marginal than ever after the latest redesign and that the Station had lost its political mission too following the end of the Cold War. In September, NASA presented Clinton with two final options: the small 4-man US-only “Alpha” Station approved in June or the larger and much more capable 6-crew “Russian Alpha” design shown above. President Clinton chose the latter option, essentially merging the American SS Freedom and Russian “Mir-2” projects into a new International Space Station (ISS). The President also managed to strike a deal with Congress which established a fixed annual budget of $2.1 billion. The agreement has been remarkably successful; the last attempt to cancel the project was rejected in the House of Representatives in 1994.
Another view of the International Space Station. Technically, ISS reverses the continuing trend (since 1986) toward a smaller and less capable Station. The new configuration reintroduced the US laboratory and node module into the design. ISS will have more science racks than Freedom and provide more power for experiments.
The International Space Station work distribution plan from 1999. The Space Station Program Office in Reston, Virginia was cancelled. NASA selected Boeing as the new Station prime contractor while NASA Johnson Space Center now hosts the new program office. This has greatly simplified the project's cumbersome management structure. Brazil joined the ISS project in 1999 and China may become a partner in the future.
