yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (03/16/89)
Mark Hess
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. March 14, 1989
Debra Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
RELEASE: 89-32
NASA AND JAPAN SIGN SPACE STATION MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher and the Ambassador
of Japan to the United States H. E. Nobuo Matsunaga today signed
the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the U.S. National
Aeronautics and Space Administration and the government of Japan
on cooperation in the detailed design, development, operation and
utilization of the permanently-inhabited, civil space station,
which the U.S. calls Freedom. The agreement was signed at a
brief ceremony at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Comparable MOUs with the European Space Agency and Canada
were signed, along with an inter-governmental agreement, in a
ceremony held at the U.S. State Department last September. The
MOUs signed between NASA and its three partners focus on
programmatic and technical aspects of the cooperative effort and
establish the management mechanisms necessary to carry out the
Freedom program.
The MOU with Japan will enter into force upon written
notification by each party that all procedures necessary for its
entry into force have been completed. Until then, Japan will
continue to work under an extension of the MOU signed with NASA
in May 1985 at the start of the space station program's
definition and preliminary design phase.
Under the agreements, Japan will provide the Japanese
Experiment Module (JEM) to the Freedom program. The JEM, to be
permanently attached to the space station base, consists of a
pressurized laboratory module, at least two experiment logistics
modules and an exposed facility, which will allow experiments to
be exposed to the space environment.
Experimenters will conduct materials processing and life
sciences research in the laboratory module, while the logistics
module can be used to ferry materials between the station and
Earth and for storing experimental specimens and various gases
and consumables.
Space Station Freedom is an international space complex
comprising a permanently-inhabited base and unmanned scientific
platforms to be placed into orbit in the mid 1990's. The mission
of the Freedom program is to provide for the United States and
its international partners -- Canada, Japan and 9 European
nations -- a diverse set of capabilities permitting humans to
live and work in space for extended periods of time.
The station will enable fundamental research in materials
and life sciences, support observations of the Earth, its solar
system and the universe and provide the on-orbit test bed for the
development of advanced technologies necessary for human
exploration of the solar system.