NASA extends contract with Russia for rides to space station ‘amid budget cuts’

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/nasa-extends-contract-with-russia-for-rides-to-space-station-amid-budget-cuts/



Still image from video shows the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft meters away from docking at the International Space Station on March 27, 2014

NASA extends contract with Russia for rides to space station ‘amid budget cuts’
Reuters
05 Aug 2015 at 19:57 ET

NASA extended its contract with Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station due to budget cuts that have delayed commercial U.S. alternatives, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday.

Extending the contract through 2017 will cost the United States about $490 million, NASA chief Charles Bolden wrote in a letter to Congress.

The deal for U.S. taxpayers to pay Moscow more than $80 million per seat on a Soyuz rocket comes at a time when Washington is ratcheting up sanctions against Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine.

“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,” Bolden wrote.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Our decision to privatize our space program has gone very well.. nt.