The aborted takeoff by a Russian Soyuz rocket and the close call for the American astronaut the Russian astronaut on board is already raising questions about the deal NASA has with the Russian space agency.
Since the U.S space agency started shutting down its shuttle program because those in Washington thought it was costing too much money, we’ve had a deal with the Russian space agency to get American astronauts to and from the international space station.
NASA was hoping the private space travel companies like Space X would be ready within a few years to be the ones that NASA contracted with to fly our astronauts to and from space.
But that hasn’t’ happened as quickly as they thought. Apparently it’s not as easy to fly people to and from space as the Space X folks may have thought.
So now with the Russians knowing that they are the only ticket available to get Americans to the space station, they’re charging a lot more for that ticket.
Reports say the price the Russians charge the U.S has gone up from 21 million dollars per space seat to about 80 million dollars per U.S astronaut with the cost over 12 years, said to be almost four billion dollars.
Some are suggesting the decision to scrub the space shuttle program could be one of those a million pennies wise and even more millions of pounds foolish.
But then who would have known the Russians would be trying to meddle with us. That never happens.
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