NASA Signs Contract With Russia To Carry Astronauts To International Space Station Until 2019

NASA has signed a $490m (£317m) deal with Russia to continue to ferry American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) until 2019.

Since NASA’s reusable space shuttle was mothballed in 2011, the American space agency has relied on its astronauts hitching lifts to the ISS aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA is exclusively reliant on the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos to ferry its astronauts to the ISS, despite relations between the U.S. and Russia being at their lowest point since the Cold War.

The new contract comes as a result of continued reductions in funding from the U.S. Government for the space programme.

Specifically the Commercial Crew Programme has not received as much cash as hoped. Boeing and SpaceX have been contracted to build spacecraft to taxi NASA astronauts to the ISS as part of the scheme.

In a letter to Congress, NASA boss Charles Bolden explained:

“In 2010, I presented to Congress a plan to partner with American industry to return launches to the United States by 2015 if provided the requested level of funding.

“Unfortunately, for five years now, the Congress, while incrementally increasing annual funding, has not adequately funded the Commercial Crew Program to return human spaceflight launches to American soil this year, as planned. This has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and international partner crews to the ISS”.

Former astronaut Bolden went on to urge Congress to increase funding so that America could end its dependence on the Russians.

“I am asking that we put past disagreements behind us and focus our collective efforts on support for American industry – the Boeing Corporation and SpaceX – to complete construction and certification of their crew vehicles so that we can begin launching our crews from the Space Coast of Florida in 2017,” wrote Bolden.

NASA recently unveiled its first ‘commercial crew’ who are set to bring U.S.space launches back to American soil.

NASA is also still working on its Orion spacecraft, which completed a successful unmanned spaceflight in December 2014. It is expected to start its first manned mission in 2021.

Unlike the space shuttle, the Orion takes the form of a small capsule launched on top of a rocket, similar to the craft used in the Apollo space missions.

Last month marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the very first collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union in which the two nations’ spacecraft docked together in space.

(Image credit: Wikipedia)