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Russia Doubles Price For Launching US Astronauts

Posted by samzenpus on from the strange-bedfellows dept.

Third Position writes "NASA on Tuesday signed a contract to pay $55.8 million per astronaut for six Americans to fly into space on Russian Soyuz capsules in 2013 and 2014. NASA needs to get rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station because it plans to retire the space shuttle fleet later this year. NASA now pays half as much, about $26.3 million per astronaut, when it uses Russian ships."

3 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting question would be, by dragisha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What does it cost with Shuttle?

    --
    http://opencm3.net, http://www.nongnu.org/gm2/
  2. Slippery Slope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Its just another round of outsourcing.

    Soon the USA will be lacking cutting edge skills and capacity in hi-tech manufacturing, and won't be able to compete with India.

    The UK dropped all that sort of stuff in the mid-60s and look at us now. We welcome the US to the third-rate Nations club!

  3. Could've been swapping moon seats by Frankenshteen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If USA hadn't canceled the constellation program, the perception of exclusivity for Russia would be diminished, and USA would have a big shiny carrot to barter some short term help with.

    --
    "It's a doughnut stuffed with M&M's. That way when you finish the doughnut, you don't have to eat any M&M's."