NASA has purchased two seats with an option for three more on Russian Soyuz spacecraft through Boeing to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). One seat each in 2017 and 2018 will allow a fourth U.S.-sponsored astronaut to fly to the ISS while Russia reduces its own crew complement. The three options are for 2019 in case the new U.S. commercial crew systems, one of which is being built by Boeing, are not ready by then. The options must be exercised by the fall of this year.

Boeing gained the ability to make seats on Soyuz available to NASA as part of an agreement with the Russian company Energia to settle outstanding financial issues related to the Sea Launch program. Sea Launch was a U.S. (Boeing)-Russian (Energia)-Ukrainian (Yuzhonye) -Norwegian (Kvaerner) company that launched rockets from a converted mobile oil platform at sea. The platform was based in Long Beach, CA and towed to a location close to the equator to launch satellites in geostationary orbit (which is located above the equator). Boeing was the major shareholder initially, but launch failures led to the company declaring bankruptcy in 2009 and Russia’s Energia took majority ownership in 2010. Sea Launch utilized Ukraine’s Zenit booster and the disrupted Russian-Ukrainian relationship following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 added to the company’s woes. A Russian venture, S7 Group, is buying Sea Launch, but Boeing and Energia needed to reach a financial settlement first. Energia builds the Soyuz spacecraft and the five seats were made available to Boeing as part of the settlement.

In a FedBizOpps

solicitation on January 17, 2017, NASA announced its

intent to buy the seats via a modification of its existing Vehicle Sustaining Engineering Contract with Boeing.

NASA has not been able to launch astronauts into space since the termination of the space shuttle program in 2011. Under the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) that governs the ISS partnership, the United States is responsible for transporting astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to and from ISS. The IGA was signed at a time when NASA anticipated that the space shuttle would be available throughout the ISS’s operational lifetime.

Without the shuttle, NASA must rely on Russia and its Soyuz spacecraft for crew transport as well as on-orbit lifeboat services so the crew can escape in an emergency. The size of the resident ISS crew is limited in large part by the number that can be evacuated in an emergency. Two Soyuzes are usually docked and each can accommodate three people, hence the current six-person limit.

NASA is prohibited from paying Russia for anything associated with the ISS program under the terms of the Iran-North Korean-Syria Non-proliferation Act (INKSNA), however, so must obtain a waiver to the law from Congress whenever it needs to contract with Russia for ISS-related services. INKSNA applies whether the arrangement is through NASA itself or a U.S. company on behalf of NASA.

A waiver enacted in 2013 allows NASA to purchase ISS-related services from Russia through December 31, 2020 (P.L. 112-273, the Space Exploration Sustainability Act). In 2015, NASA signed its most recent contract with Russia for six seats and associated training and other support services. They will accommodate U.S. and partner astronauts traveling to the ISS through the end of 2018 with a final return in the spring of 2019.

By 2019, NASA hoped that the new commercial crew systems being developed by SpaceX (Crew Dragon) and Boeing (CST-100 Starliner) would be operational. As noted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this month, however, it is not certain that those companies will be ready by then. GAO’s report was released on February 16 and called on NASA to provide a contingency plan

in case the commercial crew systems are not ready as planned. NASA agreed to provide such a plan by March 13.

Five days later, on February 21, NASA posted an article on

an ISS research website announcing its purchase of the seats through Boeing. The agency did not issue a press release. The article explained the advantages of having four U.S.-sponsored crew members aboard ISS in 2017 and 2018 and the flexibility if the commercial crew systems are delayed.

Usually there are three Russians and three U.S.-sponsored crew aboard ISS. The U.S.-sponsored crew members typically include two Americans and one representative from Europe, Canada or Japan. Budget constraints in Russia led its space agency, Roscosmos, to temporarily cut back the Russian crew complement from three to two in order to reduce resupply requirements. Since six people are usually aboard, if only two are Russian, four U.S.-sponsored crew members can be accommodated.

NASA is anxious to increase the number of crew available to conduct scientific research on ISS. With three U.S.-sponsored crew members available, it strives to spend a total of 35 hours per week on research. Four will increase how much research can be conducted.

NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said via email that NASA paid $491 million to Russia for the six Soyuz seats it acquired in 2015, which includes training and preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and crew rescue as well as limited crew cargo delivery to and from the ISS. That is approximately $81.8 million per seat including the additional services.

Purchasing the Boeing seats increased the Vehicle Sustaining Engineering contract value by $373.5 million, Schierholz said. That yields a price per seat of $74.7 million.