Russia will begin charging the United States for delivering astronauts and cargo to the international space station starting next year, the head of the Federal Space Agency said Wednesday.

Although Russia and the United States agreed to split the costs of sending men and material to the space station, only Russian spacecraft have been used since last year's space shuttle disaster; space officials say that by carrying the sole burden, Russia has fulfilled its end of the agreement.

"If the Americans want to fly Soyuz (spacecraft) in 2005, they will have to compensate us the costs," space agency head Anatoly Perminov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

NASA aims to resume shuttle flights next spring, but efforts to enhance their safety may cause delays.

The European Space Agency is also working on a cargo ship to supplement the U.S. and Russian vessels that fly to the space station.

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***Russians madly scramble to find a taxi meter to fit on Russian rocket***

its a fair ask

I`m sure the americans can afford it and the russians probably need the money. If they are to do all the transportation then I do believe they are entitled to some payment but the americans do have valid reasons for not using their shuttles at the moment though.Whether its spent wisely or on the people who need it is an entirely different story though!

Ahh but congress prevents america form directly helping the russians space agency financially an olld relic of a law from the cold war.

I think theyre havin to find other ways to subsidise them.

Causes a fortune to put one of those things into Space, if America isn't sending her own up, then if she uses Russia's then she should share their bill.