NASA Will Not Use Russian Progress Vehicle Despite Waiver

NASA Will Not Use Russian Progress Vehicle Despite Waiver

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/07/nasa-will-not-use-russian-progress-vehicle-despite-waiver/#more-19276

This may come as a surprise, but then again, it might not. Despite the
recently signed US Congressional waiver of the Iran-North Korea-Syria
Nonproliferation Act, allowing NASA to use the Russian Progress vehicle to
send US supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) after Shuttle
decommissioning in 2010, NASA has said that they will seek out US-based
commercial launch options instead. NASA has lobbied the US government for
months to allow them to continue using Russia's launch capabilities, but
since the recent launch success of US-based Space Exploration Technologies
(SpaceX) Falcon 1 rocket on September 28th, hopes are high that this option
will stop NASA's dependence on Russia.

The Iran-North Korea-Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA) basically prevents
entities in the US from doing business with Russia if Russia is doing
business with Iran, North Korea or Syria to further their development of
nuclear technology. However, one such US "entity" is NASA and the space
agency has been working with Russia's space program since the Act was signed
in 2000 (even though it is known that Russia has been providing technology
to Iran to pursue their nuclear ambitions). NASA has been able to do this by
having the INKSNA waived by Congress. The current waiver was valid until
2011, so NASA has been pursuing a waiver extension to prevent the US from
being barred from access to space after Shuttle retirement in 2011.
Although they are now legally entitled, NASA has now said that it will not
require the use of the Russian Progress supply ships to deliver US supplies
to the station, even after the successful signing of a waiver extension
(until 2016) last week.

"NASA's policy has not changed," NASA spokesman David Steitz said last
Thursday (October 2nd). "NASA will rely on U.S. commercial cargo services to
resupply ISS following retirement of the shuttle, and does not intend to
purchase Progress cargo services after 2011."

This decision comes after the successful launch of the first ever commercial
space vehicle on September 28th. SpaceX will have been relieved the fourth
flight of the Falcon 1 rocket system operated flawlessly, proving to NASA
that a dummy payload can be lifted into orbit by a private company. The
previous flight (Flight 3, on August 2nd) suffered a stage separation
anomaly, which caused the loss of two NASA satellite systems, NanoSail-D (a
prototype solar sail) and PRESat (mini-laboratory to carry out tests on
yeast cells).

Although NASA has announced there are no plans to use the Russian Progress
spaceship beyond 2011, it is still an option if required. Elon Musk, CEO of
SpaceX is not concerned about NASA opting to use Progress over a US
company's launch system. "I think it's probably a good thing NASA's hands
aren't tied there. It's possible we may lose a few flights to the Russians
but we are not going to lose more than that. There is no way Congress would
tolerate sending millions of dollars to the Russians rather than to a U.S.
company and keeping that money domestic," he said. Regardless of which
political party is voted into government in November, Musk pointed out that,
".neither [U.S. political party] likes sending money overseas if there's a
U.S. supplier."

According to today's news release, the waiver still allows the use of the
Russian Soyuz system (for manned missions to the ISS), which is fortunate as
there is no other US manned option available.


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