NASA signed 490 million US dollars contract with Russian Federation for worldwide

NASA has been upset with Congress cutting its funds by over $300 million that has forced the US space agency to renew contract with Russian Federation to send its astronauts to the global Space Station (ISS).

“Unfortunately, for five years now, the Congress… has not adequately funded the Commercial Crew Program to return human spaceflight launches to American soil this year, as planned”, Mr Bolden wrote.

The extension of contract with Russian Federation entails US taxpayers to allot $80 million per seat on a Soyuz spacecraft – something that occurred in the midst of Washington’s action of increasing the measures against Russian Federation due to its activities in Ukraine.

The US space agency in a statement said that the US will continue to rely exclusively on Russian Federation to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract, which runs until 2019.

Meanwhile, private space companies such as Boeing and SpaceX are now developing commercial space vehicles to transport astronauts to space that will soon be launched by the end of 2017.

The United States has been relying on Russian Federation for access to the global Space Station since it finished its space shuttle program three years back. In a letter addressed to the Congress, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has notified lawmakers that the agency had to pay another $490 million for Russia’s services.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program needs 1.24 billion dollars in funding.

However, SpaceX’s recent cargo resupply launches to the ISS ended in failure as the Falcon 9 rocket which is carrying supplies such as food, water and scientific payload, exploded in June, moments after its launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Draft budgets proposed by the Senate and House would earmark $900 million and $1 billion, respectively, for the development of commercial crew space transportation concepts and enabling capabilities, known as CCDev, next year.

“While I understand that funding is extremely limited, it is critical that all of NASA’s human spaceflight efforts be supported”, Bolden wrote.

Current congressional funding proposals for the Commercial Crew Program will make NASA unable to develop the program on schedule.