MOSCOW. Jan 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The time of the Node Module's launch to the International Space Station (ISS) will be adjusted because of problems with the Multi-Purpose Laboratory Module (MLM), Energia Corporation President and General Designer Vitaly Lopota told Interfax-AVN.
"The Node Module will be latched on to a vacant port of the MLM after it is attached to the station. So, the time of launching the Node Module, which has been set for 2014, will be corrected," he said. The Node Module will eventually accommodate a scientific and energy module, the corporation head noted.
Speaking of the MLM project, Lopota said "Energia shipped the module to the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in late December 2013."
"A schedule of repairs and reconstruction works will be drafted jointly with the Khrunichev Center by March 2014," he added.
"Upon their completion, new ground tests of the module will be done and it will be prepared for launch," he said.
Asked whether MLM may become morally and technologically outdated by the time it is launched, Lopota said, "the client decided to build MLM on the basis of available technologies, i.e. duplicate the design of the Zarya cargo module," he said.
"Some of the elements, units and systems with a 15-year flight qualification, among them the propulsion system, are inherited by the module. In spite of its seeming resemblance of Zarya, MLM carries a modern payload and a brand new digital control system," he said.
"The module will accommodate the EPA European robotic arm, an airlock chamber for transporting scientific hardware and instruments into the outer space and additional panels of the heat-exchange unit. It cannot be called completely or nearly obsolete. The module remains scientifically topical and technologically new," Lopota said.
"Similar equipment will be installed in new Russian modules, among them the prospective scientific and energy module, in the later period," he said.
"A requirement that MLM stay in orbit at least until 2020 was set from the beginning and that requirement was met. While the module is being improved on the ground, the consistency of its instruments and systems with the operational documentation will be verified in regular inspections," the corporation head continued.
Khrunichev built MLM and supplied it to Energia with a six-month delay. Tests showed that the module's pipelines were clogged with debris. The module was returned to the manufacturer for improvement.