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NASA Official: Agency Wont Seek Waiver To Iran Act
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 02:15 pm ET
20 February 2003
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Untitled WASHINGTON -- A senior NASA official said the U.S. space agency will not seek a waiver to a three-year-old law that would prevent NASA from buying Russian Progress and Soyuz vehicles for the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has acknowledged that keeping the ISS occupied and operational without the help of the space shuttle will require more Progress supply spacecraft and Soyuz launch vehicles and manned spacecraft than Russia is obligated to provide as part of its commitment to the space station program. But NASA has had little to say about the Iran Non Proliferation Act, a 2000 law that prohibits NASA from purchasing Russian space hardware unless the White House can certify to Congress that Russian aerospace companies have not aided Iranian missile programs for at least a year. A White House official told Space News that the Iran Non ProliferationAct has come up in discussions with NASA since the Feb. 1 Columbia accident. Scott Pace, NASAs deputy chief of staff, said Feb. 19 that the space agency is not pressing the White House for a waiver. We dont see a need to cross that particular bridge at this time, Pace said. It is not NASAs intent to make foreign policy. Pace, speaking to reporters after a presentation at the Space at the Crossroads Conference here, said it is up to the White House or State Department to seek changes in the Iran Non Proliferation Act, not NASA. Pace said that NASA continues to work with its partners in Europe, Japan, Canada and Russia to come up with a solution for keeping the space station occupied in the event that the space shuttle remains grounded beyond June.
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