The United States will pay Russia $306 million to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station and back.
That taxi service will be needed after NASA loses the ability to take its own astronauts to space, up to the space station that cost Washington some $100 billion.
NASA next year is mandated to stop flying the space shuttle fleet. And the next-generation U.S. spaceship, Orion-Ares, won’t be ready for manned flight until 2015.
Even former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said the grounding of the largest space agency on the planet is “unseemly.”
Shuttles will stop flying to free up money to pay for development of Orion-Ares. Russia appears to have resolved problems with Soyuz vehicles that resulted in hard landings.
Some members of Congress dislike giving the Russians money to transport NASA astronauts, asking why the money couldn’t be used for further space shuttle flights.