US House votes to allow NASA astronauts aboard Russian spacecraft

[tocqueville]

The legislation amends a 2000 law which forbid the United States from using or buying any of Russia's space know-how as long as Moscow continued to export nuclear technology to Iran, which Washington fears will develop nuclear weapons.

The law threatened an agreement with the Russian space agency to provide NASA with access to Soyuz to carry US astronauts and supplies to the space station.

Several US astronauts have flown into space on Soyuz since the Columbia space shuttle exploded on a return flight in 2003, forcing NASA to suspend the shuttle program.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051028/sc_afp/usrussiairanspaceiss_051028001706