NASA plans to reduce the costs of space travel in order to grant additional funds to space research.
One would argue that the way of space is a window to mankind’s destiny. While this being true, unfortunately, modern space travels are only limited to a handful of people, who are rigorously selected for the job of carrying the torch out there. But things are about to change. NASA closed a bargain with SpaceX for Commercial flights, wanting to cut back the huge costs per space flight.
Up until recently, the American space agency has relied on the Russian space program in order to get their people to the International Space Station. While this is a huge step in intercultural cooperation to achieve a common goal, NASA has been reviewing its budget. And it would seem that the contract with the Russian Aerospace Agency proved to be very spicy, meaning that millions of dollars are spent for each trip out there.
For some time now, NASA has been relying on the Soyuz space capsule in order to ship its scientists to the space station hovering above Earth. The price of transporting only one person to the space station was estimated at about 70 million dollars per flight.
Hence, NASA is thinking of making a little change in terms of resource allocation. Lately, the space agency has taken a great interest in SpaceX’s experiments involving cheap and reusable space vehicles. Although the company had a couple of setbacks in their programs regarding several irretrievable spacecraft, NASA believes that they can entrust the contract to the company, provided that they pass all the tests and audits.
Moreover, it would seem that this will be a totally new event because this is the first time NASA entrusts a commercial flight contract to a private company. Although NASA predicts that this move will make a difference in terms of resources, many senior astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan criticized their undertaking.
And so, with SpaceX on the verge of securing the commercial space flight contract, NASA is thinking about voiding the contract with the Russian space agency. By doing so, NASA wants to establish its own timetable and budget when it comes to delivering people into outer space. According to their own anticipation, if the private company manages to secure this contract, NASA could be capable of sending up a full crew complement to the space station with half the costs.
But the Russian agreement does not end here. Although NASA is planning on canceling the said accord with the Russian space agency, their past contracts regarding joint research operation still remain valid.
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