NASA Must Pay Russia $490 Million Because Congress Won't Fund Trips to Space

This afternoon, NASA administrator Charles Bolden called Congress out for consistently failing to fund an American-based manned launch program. Because of lawmakers' inaction, Bolden said in a public letter, NASA is now forced to fork over almost half a billion dollars to Roscosmos, the Russian space program, in order to continue ferrying American astronauts to orbit using their Soyuz capsule.

"In 2010, I presented to Congress a plan to partner with American industry to return launches to the United States by 2015, if provided the requested level of funding," Bolden said in the letter. "Unfortunately, for five years now, the Congress, while incrementally increasing annual funding, has not adequately funded the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to return human spaceflight launches to American soil this year, as planned."

"This has resulted in continued sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft as our crew transport vehicle for American and international partner crews to the ISS," he continued. "I am writing to inform you that NASA, once again, has modified its current contract with the Russian government to meet America's requirements for crew transportation services."

"Under this contract modification, the cost of these services to the US taxpayers will be approximately $490 million," Bolden said.

In other words, Bolden not only blamed Congress for delaying the ribbon-cutting of the CCP from 2015 to 2017, but also for giving NASA no choice but to continue paying up to Russia to secure manned launch facilities.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the blame is fairly assigned, as Congress has under-funded the CCP to the tune of one billion dollars since 2011. If the House and Senate can't front President Obama's full request of $1.24 billion to the CCP for the 2016 fiscal year, Bolden said the program would have to be kicked back for another year, to 2018.

First and foremost, this chronic lack of congressional funding is concerning because, as Bolden put it, "the greatest nation on Earth should not be dependent on others to launch humans into space." But it's also worrisome because Congress has been playing Russian roulette with the future of the American space program as a whole.

For instance, the geopolitical tension between Russia and the United States has, unfortunately, begun to bleed into the two nations' space communities. Some Russian officials have even claimed that Roscosmos might back out of the International Space Station come 2020.

"I confirm we are considering such an option," said Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko last December. "This is a possible direction of development."

If Roscosmos were to duck out of its ISS obligations before the American manned vehicle was ready, there would be no way for NASA's astronauts to visit the station. As Bolden emphasizes, this issue needs to be resolved soon, because the window for error is rapidly closing.

"The broad scope and bold goals of our human spaceflight program set our Nation apart from all others," he said in his letter. "While I understand that funding is extremely limited, it is critical that all of NASA's human spaceflight efforts be supported."

"I urge Congress to provide the funds requested for our Commercial Crew Program this year, so we can prevent this situation in the future," Bolden concluded.

Your move, Capitol Hill. Either fully fund NASA's CCP program, or continue hemorrhaging taxpayer money into Russia. The choice is, unfortunately, yours.