The National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) has reached a $753 million agreement with Russia to bring astronauts to the International Space Station for 12 round trips or roughly $63 million per seat.

The new deal is valid until 2014 or 2015. An original agreement had NASA paying $55.8 million for six round trips to the station in 2013 and 2014. NASA Spokesman Josh Bluck said that it was an 8.5 percent annual increase which includes the general inflation rate in Russia for the processing and preparation fees. Under the deal, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft will carry 12 American astronauts or from its partner agencies.

For more than ten years, the Russian Federal Space Agency has been transporting cosmonauts and astronauts on round trips to the International Space Station. Since 1988, the construction of the $100 billion facility has been a joint project of five space agencies comprising fifteen countries and is almost complete.

NASA entered the new deal in the heels of the planned retirement of its shuttle fleets after three decades of space missions. Shuttle Discovery has recently returned from its final mission. Endeavor and Atlantis are scheduled to fly their last flight in April and June, respectively.

After retirement, the space agency will solely rely on commercially-built spacecraft owned by private agencies to transport crew and cargo to the space station. The initial flights are expected by 2015 or four years after the Atlantis mission. NASA has already contracted California-based Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences Corp. The former will provide 12 delivery flights with its Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets under an agreement worth $1.6 billion. On the other hand, the latter will provide eight delivery flights with its Taurus 2 rockets and Cygnus spacecrafts.

There are six more private space agencies gunning for NASA’s fundings through its Commercial Crew Development Program, a project aimed to launch astronauts into orbit using private spacecraft. NASA Chief Charles Bolden bared that this is a vital component of its exploration plan since it will allow the United States independent access to space using its own spacecraft.

The project is encompassed in President Obama’s 2012 budget. Bolden said that this will generate more jobs as well as contribute to the American economy. The new deal with  Russia will cover the one-year overlap until the commercial vehicles are ready.

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