NASA signs $490m Russian contract for astronaut rides

Lacking funding for shuttle program, US will continue deal to carry crews to space station

NASA has renewed a contract with Russia's space agency for $490 million to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station for lack of Congressional funding, the US agency said on Wednesday.

The United States will continue to rely exclusively on Russia to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract, which runs until 2019, even as relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point since the Cold War.

The United States has been dependent on Russia for access to the space station since it ended its shuttle program in July 2012.

NASA said a lack of funding for development of private vessels by US companies Boeing and SpaceX over the last five years has left NASA with no other option.

As a result, the United States will pay for use of space vessels belonging to the Russian Federal Space Agency, even as Washington imposes harsh economic sanctions on Russia over its suspected support of separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden warned Congress in a letter on Wednesday that Boeing and SpaceX may not be ready by the end of 2017 to carry out a plan to send up their first manned vessels if funding is not granted in the 2016 budget.

Bolden blamed Congress for needing the extra money for seats. The program requires $1.24 billion to reach its goals, Bolden said.

"The fastest path to bringing these new systems online, launching from America, and ending our sole reliance on Russia is fully funding NASA's Commercial Crew Program" in the 2016 fiscal year, Bolden wrote.

In his letter, Bolden said that because Congress didn't add enough to the commercial space program, launches from US soil had to be pushed back two years, requiring more Russian rides. NASA wanted the money to help private space companies Space X and Boeing pay for new rockets and capsules that would launch from the US.

AFP - AP