NASA Signs New 'Russian Deal'

According to officials at NASA, the American space agency has just signed a new contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos). The document is meant to secure an additional six seats aboard Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft for US astronauts, and it is scheduled to come into effect once the Western nation retires its aging shuttle fleet. This is scheduled to take place later this year, or, according to a recent report, in early 2011. The announcement was made on Tuesday, Space reports.

The flights that will carry the American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) are currently planned to take place between 2013 and 2014. Officials announced that the value of the contract had been established to be of around $335 million, which means that the average seat on the Soyuz space capsule costs no less than $55.8 million per trip. This average price tag is larger than the one RosCosmos currently asks for a seat on the spacecraft. Until 2012, a trip to the ISS aboard a Russian-built space capsule will only cost $50 million.

“We're having redundant services. We always plan on purchasing a Soyuz vehicle to make sure we have access to the space station while commercial is progressing toward cargo and eventually crew capability. We're making sure that we're going to have access,” John Yembrick, a spokesperson for the NASA Headquarters, in Washington DC, said of the new Russian deal. He revealed that the American space agency was not ruling out that the commercial sector would come up with viable alternatives. However, NASA needs to ensure that its access to space is unhindered.

At this point, the agency has two main contracts for ensuring it will remain able to resupply the ISS with needed space parts, food, water and scientific experiments. It has concluded a $1.6-billion contract with Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), for about 12 cargo flights to the station. The company is to use its Falcon 9 delivery system, and its Dragon capsule to make the deliveries. The other company is Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, which is under a $1.9-billion contract to conduct eight flights, using its Taurus 2 rocket, and its Cygnus space capsule.