With the retirement of the space shuttle, expected in July, the U.S. will have to pay the Russian space agency to take astronauts back and forth from the station until the MPCV is ready.
I was shocked to find that if I got out from the same station I entered, all I needed to pay was 6 yuan - 3 yuan for the ticket and another 3 for breaking the three-hour travel time limit.
Until then, NASA will pay Russia $750 million for a dozen round trip seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.