|
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Congress increases NASA budget, Soyuz purchasing deal |
|
|
|
Written by Derek Kessler on
Thursday, 02 October 2008
|
|
|
|
 Facing the likelihood of being locked out of the International Space Station for lack of ability to actually get to it, opposition has softened in the US House of Representatives to extending a NASA exemption from a nuclear nonproliferation act targeting Russia, allowing the space agency to purchase rides aboard Russia’s Soyuz space capsule to the ISS. The Senate has also approved an increased NASA budget for next year, up nearly 17% from 2008.
NASA has been working with Russia to purchase Soyuz seats to supplement US space shuttle flights. When the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, that would leave the Soyuz as the only craft capable of launching personnel to the ISS. NASA’s exemption from the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (which has been levied against Russia for assisting Iran’s nuclear program) expires in 2011, and with the Orion CEV meant to replace the space shuttles not expected to be ready before 2014, that would leave NASA astronauts essentially locked out of the ISS.
Despite increasing tensions with Russia, spiked by the recent conflict with its neighbor and former Soviet republic Georgia, the US House of Representatives passed the new exemption as part of a stop-gap spending bill (which passed 370 to 58). The Senate also approved a similar waiver from the nonproliferation act; a committee of the two legislative groups will meet to work out an agreeable language compromise to be sent to President George W. Bush for approval. The exemption needed approval quickly, as it takes Russia three years to build the single-use Soyuz capsules.
The Senate has also passed a NASA authorization bill that will allow NASA to be funded with up to $20.2 billion in 2009 (up from $17.3 billion this year), but comes with requirements to prevent NASA from taking steps that would make it impossible to fly the space shuttle beyond the 2010 retirement date. Also included is $1 billion additional to speed development of the Orion CEV and Ares I rocket to replace the space shuttles.
The move to prevent retirement of the space shuttle comes amid pressure from numerous legislators, including US presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.
It is worth noting that while the Senate has approved the nearly 17% increase to the NASA budget, the House of Representatives on August 26th passed a spending bill that locked NASA’s 2009 funding back down to the 2008 level. Like the exemption from the nonproliferation act, representatives from the House and Senate will have to meet to work out a compromise on the issue.
The Senate bill also requires that within 120 days of the bill’s enactment that NASA submit a report to Congress on options to extend space shuttle operations past 2010. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin already ordered such a report to be compiled internally in anticipation of such a request. The increased spending bill also will allow for NASA to launch two more dedicated logistics and supply flights to the ISS and requires that a third extra flight be added to the roster to deliver the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the station.
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
|
|
|
|
|
"The keyboard. How quaint."
|
|
