Posted: Thu, Nov 10, 2005, 7:18 AM ET (1218 GMT)
The US Senate passed late Tuesday a revised version of legislation that will allow NASA to purchase Soyuz flights to the ISS from Russia. The bill, S.1713, passed the Senate late Tuesday night by unanimous consent. The Senate had previously approved the original version of the bill in September, but the House revised the bill somewhat when it passed it last month. The bill removes a provision in the original Iran Nonproliferation Act that prevents NASA from purchasing hardware or other services from Russia unless the administration certifies that Russia is not aiding the development of missile and related weapons programs in Iran. The bill, expected to be signed into law by the president, will allow NASA to make such purchases until 2012. The bill was critical since Russia has flown all of the "free" flights to the station it had committed to under previous ISS agreements. Unless NASA found a way to pay for future flights, Russia planned not to include any American astronauts on future Soyuz flights, starting in 2006.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  NASA press release