Monday, March 15, 2010

US Lifts Russian space ban: Iranian Nuclear Armament Proliferation Sanctions

The U.S. government has lifted sanctions against the Russian space organisation Glavkosmos, the U.S. Federal Register said on Thursday.

The United States imposed economic sanctions against Glavkosmos on July 30, 1998, accusing it of export control violations and engaging in proliferation activities related to Iran's missile program.

The sanctions barred the company from exporting or importing goods to the United States and also blocked it from receiving any U.S. assistance.

The decision to remove the sanctions appeared earlier this week, and came into force on Wednesday.

Glavkosmos had faced an earlier set of U.S. sanctions in May 1992, after it signed a $400 million deal with the Indian Space Research Organization on the transfer of rocket engine technology, which was deemed inconsistent with Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) guidelines.

The sanctions were removed after Russia and India signed a new deal for the sales of the engines without the transfer of technology.

In addition, after 2010 the US have no vehicle to uplift astronauts and payloads to the ISS. In previous years the US were deholding to ESA to act as a go-between for the US, when dealing with Russian aerospace projects.

This explains why NASA astronauts have in the past and are currently being trained by Russian space programme, for uplift in the Soyuz Proton transport.

No comments:

Post a Comment