US has paid Russia 4 billion dollars to transport astronauts to ISS

ver the past twenty years, 239 astronauts and cosmonauts have been taken to the ISS during 85 manned flights of Russia's Soyuz and US Space Shuttle.

The US government has paid Russia nearly $4 billion to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) via its Soyuz rockets up to July 2019, a report, compiled by the NASA Inspector General Paul Martin, said.

"As of July 2019, NASA had purchased 70 Soyuz seats worth $3.9 billion to ferry 70 U.S. and partner astronauts to and from the [International Space] Station", the report said.

The report also stipulates that the United States will likely be forced to reduce the number of its ISS crew, since new space flight systems are not ready yet.

"While awaiting the start of commercial crew flights, NASA will likely experience a reduction in the number of USOS [US Orbital Segment] crew aboard the ISS from three to one beginning in spring 2020 given schedule delays in the development of Boeing and SpaceX space flight systems coupled with a reduction in the frequency of Soyuz flights", the report read on.

As a result, US astronauts will focus on ISS maintenance instead of experiments and research, NASA suggested.

As the Space Shuttle program was terminated in 2011, the US lost its ability to arrange manned ISS flights on its own. Since 2014, private companies SpaceX and Boeing have been constructing manned spacecraft under a contract with NASA, but the deadline for their commissioning has not been set yet.

Source: RIA Novosti

Related Links
Roscosmos
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Final spacewalk preps during biology, physics studies on ISS
Houston TX (SPX) Nov 15, 2019
The Expedition 61 crew is about to kick off a series of complex spacewalks on Friday to repair the International Space Station's cosmic particle detector. They had one more spacewalk review Thursday while continuing advanced biology research. Spacewalkers Luca Parmitano and Andrew Morgan readied the Quest airlock, their U.S. spacesuits and tools for Friday's excursion set to begin at 7:05 a.m. EST. The duo then joined Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch for a final procedures review. ... read more