Summary: As a partner in the international space station, Russia agreed to provide various equipment, from the service module to progress vehicles to reboost the station to dry cargo. Russia's funding problems, however, have delayed delivery of the service module and have raised questions about Russia's ability to support the station during and after assembly. NASA has prepared a contingency plan in case the service module experiences further delays and the Russians do not provide the progress vehicles for reboosting the station. NASA estimates that it will cost $1.2 billion to protect against Russian nonperformance. Despite the contingency plan, NASA lacks an approved overall contingency plan to deal with such issues as the late delivery or loss of critical hardware. NASA is satisfied that Russian quality assurance standards are acceptable. However, the service module's inability to meet debris protection requirements is a potential safety issue. Despite efforts to control cost growth, pressures on the program's budget continue to mount. NASA's cost estimates assume assembly completion in 2004--a deadline that the agency acknowledges is ambitious. If the schedule is not met, total program costs for the U.S. part of the station would rise further. The prime contract has had significant cost overruns and schedule delays, and the nonprime portion of the program--activities related to science facilities and ground and vehicle operations--are also rising. In 1994, the nonprime component of the program's development budget was $8.5 billion; today, it is more than $12.4 billion.
