Mark Hess/Ed Campion

Headquarters, Washington, DC February 8, 1995

(Phone: 202/358-1778)

Doug Ward
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 713/244-7926)

RELEASE: 95-13

NASA/RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY REACH AGREEMENT ON KEY

STATION ELEMENT

NASA and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) have signed a

protocol complementing an agreement reached between Lockheed
Missiles & Space Co. and Russia's State Research and
Production Space Center (Khrunichev) for the U.S. purchase
of the Russian Functional Energy Block (FGB). The FGB will
be launched in November 1997 as the first element of the
international Space Station.

The protocol, signed Feb. 5 in Houston by Randy

Brinkley, NASA's Space Station Program Manager, and Boris D.
Ostroumov, the Russian Space Agency's Deputy, Piloted Space
Flight, reflects acceptance by the two space agencies of
contract terms negotiated by Lockheed and Khrunichev.

The NASA/RSA protocol also guarantees, with no

additional cost to NASA, the launch of the FGB on a Russian
Proton booster, and navigational control in orbit and
related engineering, integration, logistics, maintenance and
training support for the FGB.

The Lockheed agreement with Khrunichev, a subcontract

to NASA's prime Space Station contractor, Boeing, calls for
the design, development, manufacturing, test and delivery of
the FGB at a price of $190 million.

After initial use as a propulsion module, the FGB will

serve as a fuel storage module and a service area, which
will provide living and experimentation space as well as
backup guidance, navigation and control. In addition, the
FGB will serve as an integral part of the Space Station's
overall power and information subsystems.

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-2-

Under the agreement, Khrunichev will supply one flight-

ready FGB. The agreement also calls for on-orbit operation
and performance verification of the FGB, as well as
transportation prior to launch between the Khrunichev
production facility and the launch complex at Baikonur,
Kazakhstan.

In a related agreement, NASA and the RSA on February 6

signed a protocol establishing a liaison office in Houston
to support the U.S. - Russian human space flight program.
NASA maintains a similar technical liaison office in Moscow.

-end-

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