NASA will have to pay $12 million (9-million euros) to use a Russian Soyuz rocket to reach the International Space Station next year, according to reports Friday. Russian space agency Roskosmos was quoted as saying the charge applies to a NASA astronaut's planned flight in the spring of 2007.
Under contracts that expired earlier this year, U.S. astronauts had been able to ride free on the Soyuz, the lifeline to the Russian-U.S.-led ISS since the fatal explosion of NASA's space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Agreement was reached on the fee during a "recent visit by a Roskosmos delegation to the United States," Alexei Krasnov, director of manned flights for Roskosmos, told the Interfax-AVN news agency.
The two space agencies also agreed on the terms of their cooperation in the ISS until 2015, he said.
Shuttle Discovery, carrying a crew of seven, docked with the ISS on Thursday in only the second such mission since the Columbia accident, which killed seven astronauts.
NASA plans a return to regular flights, which are seen as vital to built and continue supplying the still-unfinished station.
