The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to allow American astronauts to use Russian spacecraft on missions to the International Space Station. Representatives voted to amend a 2000 law that prohibits U.S. use or purchase of Russian space technology as long as Russia exports nuclear technology to Iran. The law threatened an agreement between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian space agency to allow U.S. astronauts access to Soyuz spacecraft. Several NASA astronauts have flown aboard Soyuz since NASA suspended its shuttle program after the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. The change to the law, which followed a similar move by the Senate, will allow U.S. astronauts to continue using Russian spacecraft through 2012. NASA resumed shuttle flights in July, but a number of problems during that launch forced the agency to suspend missions again.
