MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia's Roscosmos state corporation, NASA and Boeing have resumed offline activities under the current contracts pertaining to the International Space Station (ISS) project, Roscosmos said in a statement on Tuesday, following a meeting at the Khrunichev Center.
"Specialists from the ISS program directorate and the design bureau of the Khrunichev Center, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Boeing company, as a leading U.S. contractor, in this project have discussed current aspects of the operation of the Zarya Functional Cargo Block (FGB) and the Zvezda Service Module," the statement said.
The sides assessed the Zarya unit's performance by analyzing its functional operation within the station, Roscosmos said. The Khrunichev Center proposed that diagnostic tests be run on the unit to rule out hull airtightness emergencies of the kind experienced by the Zvezda module.
"It was agreed to extend the contract between companies for the procurement of SP sets [spare parts, tools, accessories and materials] for replaceable systems of the functional cargo unit, as well as to give maintenance to the equipment replaceable in orbit that was purchased in 2021-2024 for broadening the technical capacities of Zarya. In particular, an extended service life of the Zvezda service module was discussed with due account of the critical remarks on the operation of its systems," Roscosmos said.
Currently, the Khrunichev Center and Boeing are working within the framework of the main contract for the extension of the functional cargo block's service life upon 15 years of operation in orbit, which was signed in 2013, and the additional agreement on the delivery of equipment replaceable in orbit for maintaining the operation of and modernizing the Zarya unit, Roscosmos said.