NASA to pay $70 million per person to fly on Russian spacecraft

America was always at the forefront of space travel however it would appear that the Russians will now become an American taxi service, for only $70 million, per person. Russia and America always had a healthy battle when it came to spaceflight, but the American organisation said it was too expensive to maintain in the future.

NASA has signed a new deal that will keep American astronauts flying on Russian spacecraft through early 2017. This is an increase of $8 million more per astronaut than the previous rate.

The deal was struck for $424 million and was announced yesterday. It is good for six seats aboard the Russian Soyuz space capsules. The agreement says that Soyuz vehicles will transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station through 2016 and over to June 2017. The previous contract was signed until 2015 for $62.7 million per person.

NASA are currently encouraging American private spaceflight firms to develop their own astronaut taxis under their Commercial Crew Program.

Kitguru say: Who ever would have thought 30 years ago that NASA would be paying the Russians hundreds of millions for a space based taxi service?

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