220 



Government is in the midst of developing a long term 

 space plan which is expected to be unveiled late this 

 year. At that time we will know what Canada plans to 

 ultimately spend on its participation in the Space 

 Station. However, we know that Canada is interested in 

 becoming a major partner on the Space Station, and 

 believe that it is planning to spend three to five times 

 the funds it spent on Canadarm, the Space Shuttle's 

 Remote Manipulator System (RMS). Canada's Phase B 

 expenditures are estimated at $22 million. 



Europe made some key decisions on space policy in January 

 at the ESA Ministerial Conference, where the European 

 Science Ministers met to decide on Europe's long term 

 space objectives. Europe formally accepted the 

 President's invitation to participate in the definition 

 and preliminary design phase of the Space Station 

 Program, while simultaneously approving the development 

 of a man-rated European launcher, Ariane 5. To undertake 

 both activities, the conference endorsed increasing ESA's 

 budget by 65% over the next five years, from the current 

 1000 Million Accounting Units to 1650 Million Accounting 

 Units — about $1.35 billion at current exchange rates. Of 

 this, ESA plans to spend $2.4 billion on Space Station 

 activities . 



Japan took an important step this year when the Diet 

 approved Japan's undertaking Phase B studies on the Space 

 Station. Japan plans to spend approximately $23 million 

 during Phase B, and total Space Station expenditures are 

 expected to exceed $1 billion. 



Space Station was again on the agenda of this year's 



Economic Summit in Bonn, with the Summit participants 



noting the positive responses of Canada, Europe and Japan 

 to the President's invitation. 



Over the past year and a half, NASA has continued to keep 

 our international counterparts abreast of our planning 

 activities, and we have been negotiating three separate 

 Memoranda of Understanding (MOU's) that govern initial 

 cooperation with Canada, Europe and Japan. We have now 

 signed all three MOU's, which cover cooperation during 

 the Detailed Definition and Preliminary Design Phase 

 (Phase B) of the Program. During Phase B, NASA and its 

 partners will each conduct parallel definition and 

 preliminary design efforts. Based on these studies, 

 NASA — and its partners — can then proceed to the Phase C/D 

 part of the Program: detailed design and actual develop- 

 ment of the hardware. The Phase B MOU's provide for 

 interaction and information exchange during that period. 

 Our overall goal is to define, design and build the most 

 capable Space Station achievable with our combined 

 efforts . 



The Space Station hardware that our partners will be 

 studying during Phase B could be welcome additions to the 

 Space Station. Canada's main interest is in a construe- 



