Nasa Rejects Russian Proposal to Prolong Flights to Iss to One Year

MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) – The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration turned down Russia’s proposal to increase the length of expeditions to the International Space Station to one year.

NASA spokesperson Debbie Rhan told Interfax on Tuesday that NASA sent a letter to the Russian Federal Space Agency last week, saying the time is not appropriate for prolonging flights to the ISS to one year.

The ISS is currently being run by a reduced group of two astronauts, so NASA does not have sufficient counter-measures, technical or medical, to deal with the effects of long-duration flights on the crew, Rhan said.

The Federal Space Agency earlier urged NASA to increase long- duration expeditions to the ISS from 6 to 12 months. It said that funds for maintaining the ISS were sharply reduced after NASA suspended shuttle flights.

By increasing astronauts’ flights to the ISS to one year Russia would get an opportunity to send two space tourists to the ISS on the Soyuz ship “thereby released.”

This scheme would bring in additional resources that could be put into the ISS and into its Russian segment.