NASA announced on Wednesday, August 5, that the space agency will be forced to make an extension of its contract with Russian Federation when it comes to relying on them to fly their astronauts to the global Space Station due to continuing reductions in funding requests by the U.S. government.
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Congress failed to earmark more money for NASA’s commercial Crew Program, despite an increase in its budget, aimed at expediting the construction of American space transport for ISS crew.
“This has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and global partner crews to the ISS”, he explains.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (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.
This new contract will now require an additional US $490 million from taxpayers which will extend into 2019. With the political tensions mounting again between Russian Federation and the United States, it is understandable that NASA wants to find a replacement for the shuttle program, in order to ferry their astronauts back and forth between Earth and the worldwide Space Station.
He said the contract would further strengthen Russian space project at the cost of NASA’s own efforts.
House Republicans have proposed $250 million less than the request for the next fiscal year, while Senate Republicans have offered $300 million less.
If Congress goes forward with these cuts, it “would likely result in funds running out for both contractors during the spring/summer of FY 2016” Bolden said.
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It has been warned by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a letter that there are doubts regarding launch with help of Boeing and SpaceX by the end of 2017 to send up their first crewed vessels in case, funding that President Barack Obama has requested, is not granted in budget of 2016. He also told the congressional committees that if this occurs, the existing fixed-price CCtCap contracts may need to be renegotiated, likely resulting in further schedule slippage and increased cost.
