Flights on the "Union" will fly into NASA a lot of money
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 to fly to the ISS for the period 2014-2015. Under the terms of the signed contract, NASA will have to pay 753 000 000 dollars for the right to use the “Unions”. The Americans have no other way out; in the summer of 2011, their Space Shuttle space program, which was considered too costly and economically unprofitable, will be curtailed.
“The price of flights, indicated by the Russian side, is fully adequate,” said Andrei Ionin, corresponding member of the Tsiolkovsky Academy of Cosmonautics. “One could request a large amount. But in the current situation it’s better not to spoil the relationship - in the end, the ISS is not the last joint project of the two countries. Considering how NASA is sensitive to the leakage of money from the state budget to other countries, this is a strong blow for them. "
The cost of the contract includes pre-flight training of American astronauts, their delivery to the ISS and return to earth on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, search and rescue operations upon landing. Total astronauts will be 12 people during this period, 6 in 2014 and 6 in 2015. The flight of one astronaut will cost NASA about 62,75 million dollars, which is 20 million more than the price of sending a space tourist to the ISS with his stay at the station , in 2009, the last of the tourists, the Canadian guy La Liberté, paid 40 millions of dollars for his flight. Prices for space for astronauts at Roskosmos are constantly increasing: for launching an American astronaut into space in 2012, they asked for $ 51 million, for 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 more than the launch of the Soyuz, the launch of one shuttle required 450 000 000 dollars. Although the shuttle could take on board up to eight people, but to launch so many people in the United States is simply not necessary. Americans do not have a full replacement for the expensive Shuttle, and therefore NASA has made a new deal with Roscosmos.
In the conditions 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 creating a simplified version of the Orion spacecraft, which was originally intended to be used as part of the Constellation program, for flights to the Moon and Mars. Another option is the Dragon ship of the private company SpaceX, created under the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation) program. When at least one of the bottom will be brought to a flying state, it is still unknown.
Orion ship
The head of NASA, Charles Bolden, signing a contract with Roscosmos, still could not resist and said: “Budget funding for the US space industry has been significantly increased, and therefore all priorities should be directed to ensure that American astronauts and cargo were transported by American companies, not by efforts other states. ”But he immediately made a reservation that the Soyuz would in any case provide the US space program as a reserve program for another year after the launch of the new American transport workers.
Charles Bolden
Hopefully, Roskosmos will be able to meet all the conditions of the signed contract and not disrupt the launch schedule 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 the next pre-launch problems.
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