Such A Deal... Only $12 Million Per Seat

It's official -- from here on out, the pricetag for NASA to book a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket is $12 million dollars. That's the word from the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which told the Associated Press the charge will first apply to a NASA astronaut's planned flight to the International Space Station in spring 2007.

While that IS a lot of money... previous NASA flights onboard Soyuz ships had been free, after all... it is considerably LESS than what Russia had said, back in January of this year, it would cost Americans to fly on the Russia capsules.

As Aero-News reported, the price Russia quoted NASA then was over $21 million, per trip, per leg... meaning a roundtrip flight on a Soyuz capsule would run NASA over twice what Russia charges space tourists to go along for a ride.

Well, Roscosmos manned spaceflight director Alexei Krasnov says that pricetag was lowered considerably during negotiations at a recent visit to the US... and, that the new agreement on flights to the International Space Station runs through 2015.

Roscosmos is betting the bulk rate will still bring in the bucks for the space agency... as after the shuttle program flies its last mission in 2010, NASA will have to rely on the Soyuz exclusively, until the agency's CEV program is up and running two years later.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.roscosmos.ru/index.asp?Lang=ENG