By Traci Watson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — NASA's budget released Monday includes the possibility of buying Russian Soyuz spaceships to carry astronauts to the International Space Station instead of relying on the space shuttle.
The budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 includes $140 million to buy Russian spacecraft that could carry cargo or crews to the space station, possibly before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010 when construction of the station should be completed. NASA would rely on Russian ships after the space station is completed.
NASA did not say when these flights would start.
Currently, the Russian Soyuz is the only spacecraft for sale able to carry astronauts into space. Using the Soyuz to send crews to the space station would allow NASA to cut back on shuttle flights, which cost up to $500 million each.
In addition, transporting crews in Russian spacecraft would free the shuttle to haul large pieces of equipment needed to finish the space station.
This budget proposal signals a major shift in the U.S. space program. But relying on Russian spaceships to transport U.S. astronauts and NASA's overall budget still have to be approved by Congress.
The Soyuz hasn't had a fatal accident since 1971. But Russia has repeatedly missed deadlines to provide the first section for building the space station in the 1990s. It also was late in delivering a new cargo spacecraft to haul supplies to the station.
The Soyuz plan is part of President Bush's proposed budget for NASA of $16.2 billion for fiscal 2005, a 5.6% increase from the current year. Part of the increase will fund Bush's bold space agenda, which he outlined last month. He called for sending Americans to the moon by 2020 and someday to Mars.
Members of Congress have questioned whether NASA should rely on Russia for the space program.
The shuttle fleet has been grounded since Feb. 1, 2003 when seven astronauts in the Columbia disaster. Since then, U.S. astronauts have gone to the space station twice in Soyuz spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan, which was once part of the Soviet Union.
NASA hopes to start flying the shuttle again in the fall. One complication is a law passed in 2000 bars the United States from buying Russian spaceships. But a bill pending in Congress would change the law and allow NASA to purchase them.
The 16 nations that operate the station had planned for the shuttle to provide most of the transportation to the space station for many years.
NASA's budget released Monday includes the possibility of buying Russian Soyuz spaceships to carry astronauts to the International Space Station instead of relying on the space shuttle.
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