http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/25/congress.spaceexploration
Another 63 billion dollars
Where is this coming from
Nasa's top achievement in Congress this year boils down to a single sentence - one line in a huge spending bill that would allow Nasa to circumvent an arms-control law and purchase Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft.
For Nasa administrator Michael Griffin, that might be enough to enable him to retire the space shuttle in 2010 and still get US astronauts to the international space station.
Yesterday, the House approved a $630bn measure to fund the government through next year that includes a sentence allowing Nasa to purchase Soyuz until July 2016.
For weeks, Griffin has told lawmakers that the Soyuz is the only reliable way to send American astronauts to the space station in the gap between the shuttle's retirement and the planned first mission of its replacement, now set for 2015. But he needed a waiver from the law banning high-tech purchases from Russia because of that country's sale of nuclear materials to Iran.
Now it's up to the Senate, where a key panel approved the same waiver on Tuesday. Passage is considered likely because it is attached to the spending bill - "must-pass" legislation before Congress adjourns for the year.
The tipping point may have come earlier this week when presidential candidate Barack Obama sent a letter to Democratic leaders in Congress urging them to OK the waiver.
