It has been described as the most expensive single item ever built. The International Space Station costs NASA $3 billion to $4 billion annually. The investments may be increased above $150 million, which will be included in future years’ budget requests. The proposed $150 million is “to enable the development and maturation of commercial entities and capabilities which will ensure that commercial successors to the ISS – potentially including elements of the ISS – are operational when they are needed.”
“NASA will expand international and commercial partnerships over the next seven years in order to ensure continued human access to and presence in low Earth orbit,” an internal document obtained by The Washington Postadds.Īs per yesterday’s budget request, while accepting that NASA could be one of many customers in the mid-2020s, the administration is proposing to end direct Federal support for the ISS in 2025 under the current NASA-directed operating model.
NASA is looking at possible players to pitch to operate certain elements or capabilities of the ISS as part of a future commercial platform. The decision to end direct federal support for the space station by 2025 does not imply that the platform will be deorbited. READ: NASA budget ends funding for space station by 2025, cuts Earth science missions What is NASA’s plan? On the face of it the goal seems to be to let private players or other countries pick up the tab, so that ISS keeps running and NASA still has some platform to conduct it experiments. The 2019 budget request allocates $150 million “to encourage development of new commercial low-Earth orbital platforms (where the space station resides) and capabilities for use by the private sector and NASA”. It instead wants to turn it into some kind of orbiting real estate venture run by private industry. However, that doesn’t mean the agency is getting rid of the space station. The NASA 2019 budget estimates, unveiled on February 12, ends direct funding for the International Space Station by 2025. With international treaties binding it to the ISS, can US unilaterally take such a decision?