FF miles don't count? Any meal service? I can go on and on with this one! CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The United States will pay Russia $21.8 million per astronaut for a lift aboard a Soyuz rocket to the international space station, the U.S. space agency NASA said on Thursday. The fare is slightly more than the world's first "space tourists" paid for a ride into space with the Russian craft. With its shuttle fleet grounded and no other vehicles available to serve as space station rescue boats, NASA had no choice but to pay Russia for transportation or abandon the half-built orbital outpost. NASA and Russia still have to work out a long-term agreement for Soyuz flights, said NASA spokeswoman Melissa Matthews, but Russia had agreed to a fee of $21.8 million per astronaut through 2011. NASA will make an initial payment of $43.8 million for the current space station commander, U.S. astronaut Bill McArthur, to fly home in March, as well as for the launch and landing of astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who was officially named on Thursday as a member of the next space station crew. The fee also covers use of a Soyuz capsule for an emergency escape ship and for training of a NASA astronaut who will replace Williams in September, Matthews said. Since the Feb. 1, 2003, accident that destroyed the shuttle Columbia, after which NASA's fleet of space shuttles was grounded for upgrades, the space station has been short one crew member to save on supplies. NASA hoped to resume flights to the outpost last year, but the July launch of the space shuttle Discovery showed that more repairs were needed. NASA hopes to fix that problem in time for another shuttle flight in May. The agency plans to fly European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter to the space station aboard that shuttle mission to join Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov as its 13th resident. Roger & Amanda La France