Shuttle Extension?

Source: NASA

Once the shuttle are in the museums – NASA’s only ticket to ride to the space station will be on Russian built Soyuz rockets. NASA has already bought six seats at about 50 million a pop – no frequent flier discounts – But now it appears the head of the Russian Space Agency – Roskosmos – is spoiling to drive a hard bargain for any tickets beyond those flights. Anatoly Perminov told Interfax “Excuse me but the prices should be absolutely different then!”

Seems like they are better at turning space into a business than the U-S. Oh the irony there… All of this is more fodder for a persistent group of people who say it is not too late to save the shuttle – or at least fly it a lot longer than four more missions. One of them is one of the top people at the prime shuttle contractor the United Space Alliance. Howard DeCastro spoke with me at the Cape before he watched Endeavour take flight for her 24th voyage.