A heated debate has erupted over which country will pay to bring American astronaut William McArthur back to Earth, shortly after he left the launch pad on Saturday aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to join the International Space Station (ISS).The Russian space agency has stated that they will not guarantee McArthur’s return unless NASA pays them.
On October 1, A. Krasnov, a senior official from the Russian space agency Roskosmos, declared, “Russia has fulfilled all agreements regarding the transportation of NASA personnel to the ISS. Now, we have no obligation to bring McArthur back.”
This is seen as a response from the Russians following a recent statement from NASA. At the end of last month, NASA indicated that they might not send their joint flight specialists on Russian spacecraft if Russia continued its cooperation in nuclear energy development with Iran. In this dispute, it appears that the Russians hold the upper hand, as since the explosion of the American space shuttle Columbia, Soyuz has been the primary vehicle for travel between the ISS and Earth.
