It became officially known that the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (Roscosmos) signed a contract for flights to the ISS for the period 2014-2015. Under the terms of the signed contract, NASA will have to pay 753 million dollars for the right to use the Soyuz. The Americans have no other choice; in the summer of 2011, their Space Shuttle program, which was deemed too costly and economically unprofitable, will be curtailed.
“The flight price indicated by the Russian side is completely adequate,” believes Andrey Ionin, Corresponding Member of the Tsiolkovsky Academy of Cosmonautics. the latest joint project of the two countries. Considering how sensitive NASA is to the leakage of money from the state budget to other countries, this is already a strong blow for them."
The cost of the contract includes preflight training of American astronauts, their delivery to the ISS and return to earth on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, search and rescue operations upon landing. In total there will be 12 astronauts during this period, 6 in 2014 and 6 in 2015. The flight of one astronaut will cost NASA about $ 62.75 million, which is 20 million more than the cost of sending a space tourist to the ISS with his accommodation at the station, in 2009 the last of the tourists - Canadian Guy la Liberte - paid 40 million dollars for his flight. Prices for space for astronauts at Roscosmos are constantly growing: for the launch of one American astronaut into space in 2012 they asked for $ 51 million, in 2013 - $ 55.8 million.
If we compare the launch of the Soyuz and the launch of the shuttle in monetary terms, the cost of launching the shuttle is several times higher than the launch of the Soyuz, the launch of one shuttle required $ 450,000,000. Although the Shuttle could take on board up to eight people, the United States simply does not need to launch such a number of people. The Americans do not have a full replacement for the expensive Shuttles, and therefore NASA agreed to a new contract with Roscosmos.
In the context of austerity on space programs, the issue of creating a new manned spacecraft is not being considered. As an option for flights to the ISS, NASA is considering the creation of a simplified version of the Orion spacecraft, which was originally supposed to be used as part of the Constellation program, for flights to the Moon and Mars. Another option is SpaceX's Dragon, which is being built under the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation) program. When at least one of the bottom will be brought to a flying state is still unknown.
Orion ship
The head of NASA Charles Bolden, signing a contract with Roscosmos, nevertheless could not stand it and said: “The budgetary funding of the American space industry has been significantly increased, and therefore all priorities should be aimed at ensuring that American astronauts and cargo are transported by American companies, and not by efforts other states.”But he immediately made a reservation that the Soyuz would in any case provide a reserve capacity for the US space program for a year after the commissioning of new American transport aircraft.
Charles Bolden
Let's hope that Roscosmos will be able to meet all the conditions of the signed contract and not disrupt the schedule for the launch of the Americans on the ISS. The upcoming launch of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, scheduled for March 30, 2011, has been postponed for the time being due to regular prelaunch problems.
