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Russia wants US to pay for astronaut flights to Space Station MOSCOW (AFP) Dec 30, 2004 Russia will ask the United States to contribute more toward the costs of flying US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), a spokesman for the Russian space agency said Thursday. Roskomos spokesman Vyacheslav Davydenko told AFP that since the US space shuttles stopped supplying the jointly manned station in the wake of the February 2003 Columbia disaster Russia had been shouldering the burden. He did not say how much the United States would be asked to pay for the flights, but explained that the reimbursements would be part of a broad review of cost-sharing arrangements including debts owed by Russia. Space agency chief Antoly Perminov would fly to the United States early next year to discuss the resumption of shuttle flights. Perminov earlier this week told the ITAR-TASS news agency that "we shall bring the American astronauts to the ISS on a commercial basis" in 2006. "We accepted a temporary barter scheme for the operation of the ISS in 2005. The US writes off Russian debts for man-hours while Russia carries astronauts by Soyuz ships for free," he said.
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