Agency Will Spend $21.8 Million Per Passenger, Per Trip

As was reported last month in Aero-News, NASA recently signed an agreement with the Russian Space Agency to provide transportation of American astronauts to and from the International Space Station onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. At the time, the terms of the deal were not disclosed; "we have our commercial secrets as well," said Roskosmos Director Anatoly Perminow.

NASA doesn't feel the same, apparently, as the agency revealed last Thursday the pricetag for the flights, seen as imperative until NASA gets the space shuttle operating again: $21.8 million per passenger, per trip leg.

In other words, a roundtrip flight for one astronaut to the ISS will cost NASA over $43 million -- or nearly twice what so-called "space tourists" pay for the trip.

The pricetag also includes what NASA spokeswoman Melissa Mathews called "a small amount" of cargo space aboard Progress supply ships, as well as training of NASA astronauts on the Soyuz systems, according to CNN and Reuters.

The first "roundtrip" ticket will actually be one-way trips for two astronauts: Jeffrey Williams, part of the Expedition 14 crew announced Thursday and who is expected to lift off in March; and the return flight home for Expedition 13's Bill McArthur, who was originally expected to return to earth onboard the shuttle Discovery.

Discovery has been delayed due to ongoing issues surrounding foam insulation on the shuttle's external fuel tank; while a fix is believed to have been found, the soonest the shuttle is expected to launch is now May, according to Reuters.

The agreement, which is good through 2011 (by which time NASA hopes to have the next-generation Crew Expedition Vehicle, or CEV, nearly ready to go), will also keep one seat available on Soyuz flights for space tourists -- although Russia is now taking something of a loss on those flights, receiving "only" $20 million for the roundtrip.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.federalspace.ru (In Russian)