2-October-2008
Adapted from a story in Space.com
BUSH SIGNS NASA BUDGET, WITH SOYUZ WAIVER, INTO LAW
With the passage of the in a massive temporary
spending measure U.S. President George W. Bush signed into
law Sept. 30, NASA has the legal ability to close a deal
with Russia for the three-person Soyuz vehicles it will need
to ensure continued missions to the International Space
Station beyond 2011, according to SPACE.com
NASA has
been prevented from negotiating a new Soyuz deal by a 2000
weapons proliferation law that bars buying space
station-related goods and services from Russia so long as
its aerospace companies continue to aid Iran.
The
U.S. space shuttle due to retire in 2010 and the Orion Crew
Exploration Vehicle and Ares I rocket due to enter service
before 2015, NASA officials have been asking for a waiver to
enable continued operations to the Space Station.
Attempts to amend INKSNA through a stand-alone bill that
would have limited NASA's post-2011 Russian spacecraft
purchases to crewed Soyuz vehicles faltered after Russia
invaded neighboring Georgia in August. Shortly after the
invasion, the bill's main congressional proponent, U.S. Sen.
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) declared chances of passage all but
dead.
A series of last minute developments enabled
the bill's main congressional proponent, U.S. Sen. Bill
Nelson (D-Fla.) to help win NASA the Soyuz waiver it needed
to continue to use the $100 billion space station beyond
2011.
On Sept. 22, Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, wrote House and
Senate leadership urging passage of the International Space
Station Payment Act of 2008 (S. 3103). The next day, the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, normally chaired by
Obama's running mate Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, approved
the act, clearing the bill for the full Senate's approval.
That particular bill, which would have limited NASA's
authority to buy Soyuz vehicles.
Instead, a simple
extension of the current waiver was included in a massive
temporary spending measure, known as a continuing
resolution, that the House of Representatives passed Sept.
24 by a vote of 370-58. The Senate followed suit Sept. 27,
clearing the way for the Consolidated Security, Disaster
Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act for 2009 (H.R.
2638) to be signed into law by Bush.
In addition to
permitting NASA to buy Soyuz and Progress spacecraft through
2016, the bill also keeps most federal agencies funded at
their 2008 levels for the first five months of the new
budget year, which began Oct. 1.
NASA officials have
been bracing for months for having to get buy without a
budget increase for all or part of 2009. NASA's 2008 budget
was $17.3 billion.
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