Waiver of Station Nonproliferation Law Would Exclude Cargo Delivery

摘要

With the future of the international space station hanging in the balance, NASA is asking Congress for permission to continue buying Soyuz crew-capsule flights from Russia while at the same time seeking bids from U.S. firms for delivering cargo to the orbital outpost. NASA already has $780 million worth of Soyuz and cargo-only Progress flights on order from Russia under a deal that expires in 2011. Once NASA's space shuttle retires around 2010, the three-person Soyuz capsule will be the only means of transporting crews to and from the space station, at least until a planned shuttle replacement vehicle comes on line around 2015.