The United States will continue to participate in the work and funding of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030, despite tensions between Washington and Moscow, NASA announced over the weekend.
The participation of the United States in the activities of theISS was only funded until 2024, and a budget estimate presented by the Trump administration called for ceasing all cooperation with the station in 2025.
But the succession ofISS by private U.S. space stations will not be secured until the end of the decade, and the decision announced over the weekend to extend cooperation until 2030 will ensure “An uninterrupted transition” between theISS and the new inhabited stations, observe The Verge.
Recently, “The growing tensions between the United States and Russia had threatened the cooperation necessary to work on theISS”, note the site.
But NASA boss Bill Nelson felt this weekend that he was “More important than ever that the United States continue to stay ahead of the curve, by multiplying international alliances and creating the rules and norms for the peaceful and responsible use of space”.
As late as November, Russia destroyed one of its satellites with missile fire, causing thousands of debris that could seriously damage theISS. The episode had sown panic in the station and angered Americans.
L’ISS was jointly developed by the United States and Russia, with the participation of European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies. It costs NASA between $ 3 billion and $ 4 billion per year, and represents a global investment of $ 87 billion for the US government.
Like the transport of American astronauts toISS, now provided by the SpaceX company of billionaire Elon Musk, NASA is banking on the private sector for the construction of the next space stations, preferring to devote its energy and resources to the exploration of Mars and the moon.
At the beginning of December, NASA thus entrusted three companies – Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman – with the task of designing and developing private stations for commercial use, usable by NASA but also by private customers.
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