The American Space Agency told Congress in a letter sent by its administrator Charles Bolden that the U.S. will have to pay Russians almost half a billion dollars to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA will have to book six seats on Soyuz rockets at $82 million a seat. The price went up from only $71 million a seat before.
In his letter, NASA administrator Bolden blamed Congress for the extra money needed for seats. He explained that this is the consequence of the fact that Congress didn't add enough financial funds to the commercial space program. For this reason, NASA will need more Russian rides since launches from U.S. soil had to be pushed back two years.
Previously, NASA asked for money to help private space companies Boeing and Space X pay for new capsules and rockets that would launch from the U.S. soil. The shortfall in funding for private space flight firms forces NASA to pay Russia increased fees to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. And this comes at a time when the diplomatic relations between the two nations are not in the best terms.
NASA set plans to fly its astronauts on privately developed spacecraft when the U.S. shuttles retired in the year 2011. Companies like of Boeing and SpaceX have worked on projects to start a kind of space taxi service. The previous plans were set to make private rockets available this year, but since 2011 the U.S. Congress has given NASA about a billion dollars less than requested for this program. For this reason, the first launches of private rockets are now due in 2017.
Meanwhile, NASA has to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for reaching the International Space Station, paying the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for the service. Since the Russian invasion of Crimea last year, this deal has become politically more difficult, leading to a ban on NASA-Roscosmos collaboration. Fortunately, ISS operations were not included in this boycott.
In his letter, Bolden asked the Congress to put "put past disagreements behind us and focus our collective efforts on support for American industry," since it is critical for American interests that "all of NASA's human spaceflight efforts be supported."
