{"id":19052,"date":"2017-03-01T01:08:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-goes-ahead-and-buys-russian-rides-to-space-station-through-boeing\/"},"modified":"2017-03-01T01:08:11","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T17:08:11","slug":"nasa-goes-ahead-and-buys-russian-rides-to-space-station-through-boeing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-goes-ahead-and-buys-russian-rides-to-space-station-through-boeing\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA goes ahead and buys Russian rides to space station through Boeing"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_259477\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-259477\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-259477\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-630x533.jpg\" alt=\"Soyuz spacecraft near space station\" width=\"630\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-630x533.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-768x650.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2.jpg 1211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-259477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An upgraded Soyuz spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking. (Credit: NASA TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA&nbsp;has agreed to purchase at least two trips to and from the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, from an unlikely ticket-seller: the Boeing Co.<\/p>\n<p>The arrangement follows through on a convoluted plan laid out back in January, and provides a cushion for the space agency in case Boeing and SpaceX can\u2019t provide space taxis for NASA\u2019s use by 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since the shuttle fleet\u2019s retirement in 2011, NASA has been buying trips from the Russians at escalating prices. The latest purchase, for seats on Soyuz craft to be launched in 2018, amounted to $82 million per seat.<\/p>\n<p>The per-seat price for the Boeing buy will be $74.7 million.<\/p>\n<p>Boeing picked up the rights to the additional Soyuz seats as part of the settlement for a $320 million-plus debt owed by Russia\u2019s Energia space company. Those debts were incurred while Energia subsidiaries were working with Boeing on the Sea Launch joint venture. (Boeing is no longer part of that venture.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Boeing And SpaceX Closer To Ferrying Astronauts To Space | Video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lu6XHH3AlTg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Buying two rides from Boeing will let NASA beef up its representation on the space station in the fall of 2017 and the spring of 2018. NASA also has the option to purchase three more rides from Boeing in 2019 if SpaceX\u2019s Dragon and Boeing\u2019s Starliner space taxis aren\u2019t ready to fly astronauts by then.<\/p>\n<p>The current schedule calls for both companies to start crewed flights in 2018, but in a report issued this month, the Government Accountability Office said 2019 was a more likely start date due to the technical challenges the companies are encountering.<\/p>\n<p>NASA announced that it was going through with the Boeing buy&nbsp;on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An upgraded Soyuz spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking. (Credit: NASA TV) NASA&nbsp;has agreed to purchase at least two trips to and from the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, from an unlikely ticket-seller: the Boeing Co. The arrangement follows through on a convoluted plan laid out back in January, and provides [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,717,190,1302],"class_list":["post-19052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}