NASA Notifies Congress About Space Station Contract Modification with Russian Federation

However, even the private players like Orbital ATK, one of two companies that fly cargo to the space station under a separate NASA program, said it received Russian engines for its refurbished Antares rocket that had gone bust in an accident in October 2014.

Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has needed to pay Russia to fly astronauts to the worldwide Space Station aboard Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft, but all of that was expected to change in 2017. That works out at almost $82 million per ride, up from the $71 million NASA paid in 2013.

Bolden blamed Congress for requiring the additional money for seats. He said that unfortunately, after five years, the annual funding for NASA is still not enough for the commercial crew program to return manned spaceflight launches back to American soil this year. From then on, the agency has been collaborating with private space vehicle companies such as SpaceX and Boeing (BA.N) to transport space crew to and from the ISS, which is a huge space research laboratory situated 250 miles above the Earth.

STARGAZERS in Chichester could spot a space station passing overhead tonight (August 5) if they look up at just the right moment.

The stubbornness of the U.S. Congress is pushing the launch of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program further into the future, without a deadline in sight.

On the topic of communication, the NASA astronaut shared on Twitter that he doesn’t get to use “Facetime” on the worldwide Space Station.

In a letter addressed to the US Congress, NASA chief administrator Charles Bolton explained that NASA was forced to renew its contract with the Russians, rather than send its own crafts up to the ISS, due to budget contraints. “He will manage the overall development, integration and operation of the program”, noted Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “This has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and global partner crews to the ISS”, the Bolden letter reads.

NASA is now funding two primary contractors via the ongoing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract.

First and foremost, this chronic lack of congressional funding is concerning because, as Bolden put it, “the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on others to launch humans into space”. Furthermore, he urged law makers not to lower the Commercial Crew budget for the fiscal year of 2016, saying that would be disastrous to the program.