The Changing Nature of Commuting

It looks like the gravy train has reached the terminus.

MOSCOW — Russia plans to stop giving American astronauts free rides on its spacecraft to the international space station beginning in 2006, the head of Russia's space agency said.

Anatoly Perminov said the no-cost agreement between NASA and Russia's space agency Roskosmos could be replaced by a barter arrangement, according to the Interfax news agency on Tuesday.

Russian Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships have been the sole link to the international space station since U.S. shuttles were grounded after the shuttle Columbia burned up on re-entry in February 2003. NASA said it plans to resume its shuttle program in May.

There's an easy solution to this. When Challenger exploded in 1986, it was caused by more than just faulty equipment; it was caused by an internal NASA culture that prevented concerns from being aired and addressed. NASA vowed never to let the same thing happen again, but that's exactly what happened in 2003. The legitimate concerns of engineers were dismissed and suppressed by bureaucrats, just as they had been in 1986.

Shuttle flights are set to resume early next year. Let's hope NASA doesn't have to learn their lesson a third time; if they do, the Russians are going to start charging or bartering with us. You think it's expensive to get that bag of peanuts on a domestic flight? Just wait 'til you've gotten bilked for a Soyuz ticket.