WASHINGTON, November 29 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Berezin) - Russian and U.S. space officials are discussing the technical aspects of the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday.
NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn said NASA officials were meeting with Russian delegates led by Alexei Krasnov, who heads the manned space programs department of the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos), at the Johnson Center in Houston (Texas).
Apart from technical issues, the meeting is focusing on the schedule of ISS flights, Rahn said.
She also said the Russian delegates would stay in Houston for a coordination council session on December 1 to discuss further technical aspects.
This is the first meeting between Russian and U.S. space officials after U.S. President George Bush signed a bill November 22 amending the 2000 Iran Nonproliferation Act. The bill ends the restrictions on NASA's use of Russian Soyuz spacecraft for flights to the ISS and allows the United States to pay Russian organizations directly for services provided for the ISS without authorization from the president.
The Iran Nonproliferation Act linked NASA-Russia cooperation on the ISS to Russia's observance of the ban on supplies of ballistic and cruise missiles to Iran and weapons and technologies that could be used to develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in Iran.
Now NASA will be able to purchase equipment and services from Russia to facilitate U.S. participation in the ISS program until 2012.
The move also resolved the problem of returning the head of the 12th ISS mission, U.S. astronaut William McArthur, who has been on board the ISS with his Russian colleague Valery Tokarev since early October.
Shortly after the 12th crew arrived at the ISS, disputes erupted as to who would pay for the return of the expedition's commander. With U.S. shuttles still grounded after the Columbia disaster, Russian Soyuz spacecraft remain the only delivery vehicle for ISS missions. Starting with the McArthur mission, Russia said it would make all flights to and from the ISS for U.S. astronauts on a commercial basis. In talks, NASA officials constantly referred to their legislators, who did not allow them to pay for the building of additional Soyuz craft and Progress freighters. Now this stumbling block has been removed.
A source in the Russian delegation also said bilateral narrow-format discussions might consider payment methods and the possible acquisition of Soyuz spacecraft by the United States.
