The consequences of the conflict in Georgia may reverberate all the way to the International Space Station.
With the space shuttle fleet heading for retirement in 2010, and a replacement not ready until 2015, NASA is depending on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. But tensions between the US and Russia over Georgia look set to scupper a deal between the two countries.
US legislation outlaws payments to Russia for services related to the space station because Russia exports nuclear and missile technology to Iran.
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Although NASA has an exemption allowing it buy Soyuz flights, this runs out after 2011. Russia says it needs three years to build new Soyuz vehicles, so NASA needs to start negotiating a new deal now to prevent a transportation crisis in 2012. NASA鈥檚 administrator Mike Griffin says a new extension must be ratified by Congress as a matter of urgency.
However, the Georgia situation means that Congress is in no mood to grant such an extension, leaving NASA in the lurch.
鈥淭here are no real alternatives,鈥� says John Logsdon, a space policy expert at George Washington University in Washington DC. One option is to revamp the European Space Agency鈥檚 cargo-carrying Automated Transfer Vehicle to accommodate passengers, but it would take at least six or seven years before the modified vehicles would be ready to fly, says Logsdon.
