Russia Wants U.S. to Pay Astronauts’ Way
MOSCOW — The head of Russia’s cash-strapped space agency said Tuesday that it would stop giving U.S. astronauts free rides into orbit.
Russia has single-handedly provided transportation between Earth and the International Space Station, a $95-billion orbiting laboratory, since NASA grounded its shuttle fleet after Columbia broke apart on reentry nearly two years ago.
NASA has said shuttle flights could resume in May.
Russia has made no secret of the financial pinch it has felt from having to launch joint U.S.-Russian manned missions and cargo ships to the station, saying its budget is a fraction of NASA’s.
Anatoly Perminov, Russia’s space agency chief, will travel to the U.S. early next year with a proposal. “From 2006, we will put U.S. astronauts into orbit only on a commercial basis,†the Russian news agency Itar-Tass quoted Perminov as saying.
The U.S. has often financed Russian cosmonauts’ trips to the station on shuttles, and Russia has done the same for U.S. astronauts since the Columbia tragedy.
Under the new proposal, the U.S. would write off debts Russia owes for labor carried out on the station in exchange for Russia launching the astronauts.
When the station was built, participants from 16 nations agreed on financing and expertise that they would put into the project, and Russia still owes some of the contribution to which it had agreed.
The proposal was the latest money-saving plan devised by the Russian space agency.
It has launched two tourists, who enjoyed 10 days in space for their $20-million tickets, and plans to send up more. Perminov said two foreign space tourists could be launched in 2006.
Russia has launched two manned and five unmanned ships to the International Space Station this year.
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