Shaking hands in air

Russia: grand designs in space (Credit: NASA)GLOBAL collaboration in space exploration has taken another giant leap
forward with the signing in August
of a us $190 million deal - to develop
and launch the first
module of a new international space station
called Alpha - between Russia's Krunichey Space Center and
the Boeing Defense and Space Group of the us.

The module, known
as a Functional Energy
Block (FGB), would be
the first component of
Alpha, the world's premier internation-
al high-tech orbital laboratory. The
200-tonne, 6-man laboratory will
cjAnsist of several modules and is sched-
uled for completion by the year 2001.
The FGB will be launched from the
Baikonur cosmodrome in Russia in
November 1997.

Boeing will provide
the entire amount
needed for Krunichev
to develop and manufacture one block. Anatoly Kiselyov, the Krunichev general director, said that after initially
serving as a power and
propulsion module, the
block would function
as a fuel and equipment storage facility.