MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has completely offset its debt with regards to construction of ISS, head of the Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov has said.
"The only thing I would like to mention is that we have reached agreement with NASA, which has written down the whole debt of the Russian side," Perminov said in an interview, posted on the Federal Space Agency's official web site.
According to him, Russia incurred a debt at the initial stage of ISS construction, when the U.S. allocated $60 million for stepping up construction of the Russian module. Instead they received the right to use a certain share of the crew working time on ISS. As of September the debt amounted to about 3,000 hours of working time of the Russian crew.
At the same time Russia has shouldered the burden of launching crews to ISS and providing the station with necessary supplies for the past two years, as U.S. shuttle launches were suspended.
"Thus, we put forward a tough condition: the issue should be settled in compliance with the contribution of each side," Perminov said.
However, according to him, the issue may only be settled by U.S. Congress, since the non-proliferation law with regards to Iran prohibits NASA from procuring Russian space technology and services directly.
"In fact, the law automatically blocks a considerable part of our cooperation with NASA in the sphere of manned space flights. But then again: in that case we will not work on ISS for free," Perminov emphasized.