spacetoday.net: House passes extension of NASA INKSNA waiver

Posted: Thu, Sep 25, 2008, 7:23 AM ET (1123 GMT)
US Capitol

The House of Representatives passed a spending bill on Tuesday that includes a provision allowing NASA to continue to purchase Soyuz and Progress spacecraft from Russia, a move NASA deems to be critical to the future of the station. The bill is a continuing appropriation that funds a number of government agencies, including NASA, at their fiscal 2008 levels until early March 2009 or until a final fiscal year 2009 budget is passed. One provision in the bill, though, extends NASA's waiver to the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA), allowing the space agency to purchase Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. The current waiver expires at the end of 2011, and NASA officials warned that it needed to be extended this year because there is a three-year lead time in procuring the spacecraft. The House bill would extend the waiver until July 2016. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved earlier this week a separate standalone bill that would extend NASA's INKSNA waiver only for Soyuz purchases, and until either Orion or a commercial alternative enters service. Worsening relations with Russia in the wake of that country's incursion into Georgia last month had put any INKSNA waiver in jeopardy.