Law aimed at punishing Moscow for supplying Iran to be rescinded to allow US astronauts to reach space station
NASA is waiting for President Bush to sign into law a bill that will amend the Iran Non-proliferation Act (INA) of 2000 and allow the US space agency to pay Russia for flights to the International Space Station (ISS).
Intended to punish Russia for providing ballistic-missile technology to Iran, and stop support for the country’s space programme, the Act threatened to prevent US astronauts reaching the ISS from next April.
“The language of the amended INA 2000 was requested by the president. We have simply enacted that,” says the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which helped draft the original Act.
Under the original multi-lateral treaty between ISS partners, Russia was to provide 11 Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts and cosmonauts to the station. Each Soyuz craft would act as an emergency return capsule, staying docked to the ISS for the duration of the six-month expedition then returning the crew to Earth.
Following the 11th Soyuz flight, launched at the end of September, responsibility fell to NASA to provide an emergency return spacecraft from April 2006.
But NASA does not have a vehicle that can act as a lifeboat, following cancellation of the lifting-body X-38 in 2001.
Once the amended INA is signed into law, NASA will be able to pay Russia’s Federal Space Agency for Soyuz launches to transport ISS crews and have the capsule continue to act as an emergency vehicle. NASA is also expected to have to pay Russia for future resupply flights as uncertainty over the number of Space Shuttle flights remaining means the US agency’s responsibilities for ISS logistics are also in doubt.
NASA is to solicit proposals for flight demonstrations that could lead to competitive procurement of commercial services to transport cargo, and possibly crew, to the ISS. The agency plans one or more “Period 1” demonstrations of external unpressurised or internal pressurised cargo delivery, culminating in rendezvous and docking or berthing with the ISS and either disposal or reentry and recovery.
Assuming a successful demonstration by 2010, NASA says it may issue a request for proposals for commercial services to resupply the ISS to at least 2015. A “Period 2” demonstration consisting of one or more crewed missions to the ISS will be considered only after successful demonstration of a cargo delivery capability, the agency says.
A final solicitation is expected in early December, with responses due by late January and agreements scheduled to be signed in May next year.
ROB COPPINGER/LONDON
Source: Flight International
