Senate panel passes Soyuz measure

This update from Eun Kim in Washington ...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today approved a NASA bill crucial to granting Americans access to the International Space Center after the space shuttles are retired in two years.

The committee passed the bill on a voice vote, with no opposition. The measure now goes before the full Senate. Its prospects there, however, are cloudy.

Lawmakers must hammer out details of a massive financial rescue plan, a stop-gap budget proposal and numerous other weighty issues before they adjourn by the end of this week.

The bill passed today by the Senate panel would let NASA astronauts catch a ride to the $100 billion station on the Russian Soyuz capsule.

The measure would grant NASA a waiver from a nonproliferation law that forbids the United States from buying Russian services until that nation stops exporting nuclear arms to Iran and other nations considered hostile by the U.S. government.

The bill must pass by unanimous consent. That means opposition by even one member could kill the measure.

Sen. Bill Nelson, the Orlando Democrat pushing the bill, said "we've got a couple in the Senate that we have to worry about so we'll just see."

NASA currently is exempted from the law, but its waiver expires in 2011. The agency needs to pass an extension this year to give Russia enough time to build a Russian Soyuz vehicle.

Rep. Dave Weldon, an Indialantic Republican, has strongly opposed renewal of the exemption, expressing concern over icy U.S.-Russian relations.

So far, however, he acknowledged he hasn't been able to convince others to join his opposition.

However, on Tuesday, Weldon said he learned that House members "are getting pushback" on the issue.

"There's some discussion of doing a two-year waiver of the extension and extending shuttle operations," he said, but he acknowledged: "This is in the discussion phase, so stay tuned."

Image note: A Soyuz rocket carrying a Soyuz spacecraft and a crew bound for the International Space Station blasts off from Russia's launch site. Photo courtesy of Energia. Click on the image to see a larger version.