The ISS May Live for a Little Bit Longer for a Totally Predictable Reason | Congress instructed NASA to not begin deorbiting the ISS until at least one commercial successor is in space.
https://gizmodo.com/the-iss-may-live-for-a-little-bit-longer-for-a-totally-predictable-reason-2000731283
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>The end may not be so near for the International Space Station (ISS), at least not until a privately owned alternative has filled its orbital shoes.
>The U.S. Senate advanced a revised version of a NASA authorization bill, which would delay the retirement of the ISS from 2030 to 2032. The goal of the two-year extension is to “avoid a gap in continuous human presence and capabilities in [low-Earth orbit], thus avoiding ceding leadership to China before commercial stations are ready,” the NASA Authorization Act reads.
>Congress added a sense of urgency toward NASA’s plans of maintaining a human presence in Earth orbit by transitioning to the use of commercial space stations. Despite the ISS retirement scheduled in a few years’ time, the space agency has yet to kick off the final round of a competition among industry leaders to develop their own orbital lab. With no clear alternative in sight, U.S. lawmakers are concerned about whether private companies will be prepared to replace the ISS by 2030.
I’m glad they are comitting to a continuous presence in space. Say what you want about the ISS, but you can’t deny that 25 years of continuous human presence in space is a huge achievement up there with Apollo. Hopefully the safety process is uneventful and they can certify the ISS to keep flying for a few more years.
In the long run I hope that super heavy lift vehicles can mature to the point where we can boost the ISS into a graveyard orbit instead of deorbiting it, that way we can preserve it as a historical artifact for future generations. Obviously some work would need to be done to ensure the new thermal environment wouldn’t destroy the station, but since the station doesn’t need to be operational perhaps that is as simple as encasing the whole station in a giant whipple-shielded mylar cocoon to reflect away the additional sunlight.
Maybe not laying off staff and reducing their funding to a bit of string and some pre chewed jerky would have led to NASA being able to do that.
If I am not mistaken this bill has just been advanced out of committee. Doesn’t its still have to be passed by the whole Senate, the House and signed by the president before its law?
You know what this means…… Russia has said it’s taking its modules “and going home “ after current plan, will now blackmail us for Billions to buy them to allow the ISS to stay up til 2032!
What is the commercial incentive for a company putting an expensive space station in orbit? If this incentive exists and the costs can be justified, why hasn’t it happened?
I’m tired of being told that companies will want to do science in space. Fucking prove it. When one of them shows a desire—and then backs it up with a plan—to put a station up there, maybe then I’ll believe it’s a viable project from a commercial perspective, but I’m sick of being told it is when no one has bothered to do it. Put up or shut up.
This sort of thing is best left to governments, not corporations. Governments are supposed to do things for the benefit of their people (whatever that means at any given time; science, national prestige, military superiority / national security). Corporations want *profits*, and the cost of putting a station in orbit—when compared to what the company will receive in return—doesn’t seem like a good bet right now.
And if I’m wrong, please explain to me why we don’t have multiple corporations trying to build space stations *right now*. It’s foolish to assume they’ll want to do this “just because.” You don’t run a business on “just because.” That’s how you go *out* of business.
I wish we had more of a interest in space. I don’t see a ISS replacement happening any time soon. If anything, China might open up it’s station which is far an away a better facility at this point.
Didn’t Congress recently gut funding?
And a commercial successor? Not an international mission?
They can’t keep ISS working safely for ever waiting for that to happen