CAPE CANAVERAL - The House
of Representatives voted Wednesday to let NASA continue buying Russian
spaceships to deliver astronauts and supplies to the space station until 2012.
The Senate already adopted a similar measure, though some minor details need to
be worked out before the legislation is finalized.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asked
Congress earlier this year to amend a arms control law that prevented the space
agency from buying spaceships from the Russians. The intent of the law was to
prevent Russia from providing nuclear technology to Iran.
NASA has relied upon Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get its astronauts to and from
the International Space Station since the Columbia accident in 2003 grounded
the shuttle fleet. Only one shuttle mission has flown in the nearly three years
since.
However, Russia's obligation to provide such rides ended with a Soyuz that
launched earlier this month. Beginning next year, NASA faced the prospect -
barring more normal shuttle flights - of having no way to get its astronauts to
the $100 billion international station.
"Without legislative action, NASA will have limited access to the ISS
until the U.S. Crew Exploration Vehicle is ready to be deployed," said
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., during a brief floor debate before the House voted
to approve the change.
The new measure, once finalized, would provide the agency the ability to pay
the Russian space agency for seats on Soyuz crew ferries or for use of
automated cargo carriers.
The measure not only solves the more immediate problem of astronaut access to
the station. It also might help ease financial burdens and shuttle scheduling
difficulties for the space agency as it tries to transition to a new breed of
moon ships and rockets.
NASA has spoken openly about its desire to eliminate as many shuttle flights as
possible from the schedule. Nineteen missions are currently planned, including
one to Hubble Space Telescope, before the orbiters retire in 2010.
The ability to buy Soyuz means NASA can rely on the shuttles only to haul the
biggest and heaviest components that it was built for rather than using it for
"logistics" missions to deliver supplies and crews.
The Russian flights are much cheaper and a more efficient use of resources. The
Russians have been quoted in foreign press reports as wanting as much ass $65
million for each Soyuz mission, but it's unclear what the ultimately negotiated
price will be.
Regardless, it will be many times less than the half-billion to one-billion
dollar cost of launching a single shuttle mission.
The flexibility will help the agency in its ongoing studies of how many shuttle
flights will be possible between now and 2010.
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