spacetoday.net: NASA extends Soyuz deal with Russians

NASA extends Soyuz deal with Russians

Posted: Wed, May 1, 2013, 6:26 AM ET (1026 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-08M arrival at ISS (NASA)

NASA announced Tuesday it has extended its agreement with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to purchase seats on Soyuz flights to and from the ISS, at a price of about $70 million per seat. The agreement Tuesday covers six seats on Soyuz flights to the ISS in 2016, with "return and rescue services" through June 2017. The total value of the contract extension is $424 million, or just over $70 million per seat. NASA hopes to transition to commercial crew providers in 2017, but argues that it needs that program to be fully funded at the requested level of $821 million in its fiscal year 2014 budget request to remain on schedule.