PARIS, France An experienced French astronaut is expected to become the first European woman to serve aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The historic first comes as France, which in recent years has shied away from human expeditions in space, plans a major commitment to the station, pumping a half-billion dollars into the most complicated and expensive endeavor ever carried out in low Earth orbit.
The major policy shift in French human spaceflight and the innovative deal to fly French astronauts aboard the ISS, (relying on Russia's Soyuz and NASA's space shuttle), were outlined by France's new research minister, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg during an exclusive interview with SPACE.com.
As a result, France, which represents the world's third largest space power after the United States and Russia, will send a French woman astronaut in October 2001 on a French-Russian flight to the International Space Station, according to French officials.
"This Saturday, the French space agency CNES will finalize in Moscow an agreement with the Russian space agency Rosaviacosmos and the Russian firm RKK Energia to fly Claudie André-Deshays on board a Soyuz capsule to be docked to the space station," said Schwartzenberg.
At the same time, CNES will invest about $500 million in the space station between 2001-2004. The plan makes it clear that, according to the agreement signed in 1995 in Toulouse (France) with its ISS partners, France is committed to providing about a quarter of the total European Space Agency (ESA) budget for the station. ESA is the third largest contributor to the ISS after United States and Russia.
"It would have been a paradox to invest so much in space flights and not to have neither French astronauts flying to the station nor scientific experiments before several years. Thats why we've been initiating this mission with the Russians and we also have some ongoing discussions with NASA to get a shuttle flight opportunity, in the future, for another French astronaut," said Schwartzenberg.
Among ESA's 16-member astronaut team, Umberto Guidoni from Italy is the next European astronaut scheduled to fly this coming spring to ISS aboard Endeavour. Ten more ISS flights involving ESA astronauts are planned between 2004 and 2010.
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The change in policy also follows the appointment of Schwartzenberg last spring. His predecessor Claude Allegre was well known for maintaining a hard-line policy against manned flight for French astronauts during his three years in office.
Schwartzenberg emphasizes the advantages of a policy shift. "It's not relevant to enter a theological debate between robotic missions and manned flights," he says. "Both are useful in their own way. We should take advantage of our French astronauts, whose on-orbit competence has been appreciated by the Russians, as well as by NASA."
According to him, the eight-to-10-day science mission next October is a mix of cooperative agreements between the two countries and a commercial deal between CNES and its Russian counterparts. But the amount to be paid by France for this flight won't be disclosed. This flight reflects, according to French officials, their will to cooperate with Russia in space activities as they do with United States.
According to several sources, NASA officials welcome such cooperative flight because they provide the Russian space agency with much needed money that could lead ultimately to a stronger Russian partnership in ISS.
As for ESA, which manages all the European astronauts, including the French, "this CNES-funded flight isexcellent news because its an extra opportunity for Europe to make some scientific research on the station," said Franco Bonacina, ESA spokesman.
The science program for the October 2001 flight experiments will take advantage of Andre-Desays' medical expertise. She became the first Frenchwoman to go into space when she flew on Mir in August 1996. She is also the first female astronaut to qualify as a "Soyuz Return Commander," the person in charge of a three-person Russian capsule on the homeward trip from outer space.
She served as backup for Jean-Pierre Haigneré during his a record-breaking 188-day mission aboard the same station in August 1999. Both were decorated by Russian president Putin with the "Order of the People's Friendship."
Now based in Cologne, Germany, at the European Astronaut Center (EAC), André-Deshays will start her training at Star City, near Moscow, next January.
The short-term mission, to park a replacement Soyuz capsule at the space station and allow the existing one (which can only stay in space a nominal 180 days) to return, will also include scientific experiments.
On the international station, the Soyuz capsule, which is almost to the one used in 1967 in the top secret Soviet space program, has a critical function. While docked to the outpost, it serves as a lifeboat should an emergency force the crew to evacuate. "This is the only way to go back quickly to Earth if there is a fire, a depressurization or a medical emergency of a crew member, " said André-Deshays, a former physician at the famous Cochin hospital in Paris.
France and the U.S.S.R. had a long and challenging history of space cooperation. As early as 1982, Jean-Loup Chrétien was the first Westerner ever to fly on a Soviet space flight, which paved the way for international cooperation.
Seven space flights involving French participation with post-Soviet Russia have also taken place, as well as six with the United States' shuttle. André-Deshays' flight will be the 14th with a French astronaut, making France third in manned missions after the United States and Russia. Four of the six French astronauts are actually in training in Houston.
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