NASA signs $490M contract with Russia for ISS travel

WASHINGTON:NASA has extended a contract with Russia's space agency for $490 million to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station amid a lack of Congressional funding, the US agency said.

The United States will continue to rely exclusively on Russia to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract, which runs until 2019, even as relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point since the Cold War.