The war between Russia and Georgia may prove to be a serious problem for NASA, as its capability of sending astronauts to the international space station for future space missions may be severely endangered by the conflict between the two countries, according to The Washington Post.

Given that the United States space shuttles are due to be retired in 2010 and the replacement craft will be ready at least five years later, NASA intends to negotiate a contract this year so as to have access to Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to transport the crews to and from the international space station until the U.S. craft is put in order.

However, the first step is in Congress’ hands. Congress has to pass a waiver to a 2000 law which prohibits the U.S. government from signing any contract with nations that help Iran and North Korea with their nuclear programs, as Russia has already done.

“In an election year, it was going to be very difficult to get that waiver to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to an increasingly aggressive Russia, where the prime minister is acting more and more like a czar,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), quoted by The Washington Post. “Now, I’d say it’s almost impossible,” he added, as reported by the same source.

The situation has sparked much controversy, especially in what concerns the Bush administration, which was strongly criticized for its decision to hinge on the Russians in order to transport astronauts to the international space center. Moreover, critics explain that the administration has not provided NASA enough funds in order to create a new generation of spacecraft sufficiently rapidly to avoid the five-year break in proceedings.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told Congress in April that the waiver had to be passed without delay until September 30 so as to give Russia sufficient time to construct the Soyuz vehicles, The Washington Post reported.

Nevertheless, if the waiver does pass, NASA will still have a problem negotiating with Russia over the cost of the service. In addition to this, several members of Congress have expressed their concerns in what regards the fact that the Russians would constrain NASA to pay an enormous sum, as it has no other option.