SPACE

ISS partner countries meet to mark 20th anniversary of orbiting laboratory

November 20, 2018

The partner countries of the International Space Station (ISS) meet in Moscow to mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first ISS segment, Zarya. With the exception of the United States, they appear ready to continue supporting the orbiting laboratory beyond 2024, when pre-agreed funding runs out.

Zarya was launched on a Russian rocket, and it welcomed its first crew on Nov 2, 2000. The partners finished the space station, which orbits some 240 miles above Earth, in 2011. A joint enterprise between the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan and Canada, the ISS has now been continuously occupied since 2000. And, over that time, according to its fans, it has increasingly come to justify its estimated US $100 billion cost.

Reporting in Jan 2018 on its probable fate, the BBC noted that the ISS has proved that humans can live and work in space for prolonged periods and carry out useful science in orbit, but that humanity’s most expensive structure may plunge to a watery death unless a post-2024 agreement can be found.

Recent news suggests that post-2024 funding is all but assured. The U.S. administration and NASA want to pull the funding plug in 2025, but there are signs that Congress might have other ideas.

SpaceNews.com reports that legislation introduced in both the House and Senate contains provisions to authorize an extension of the ISS until 2030. That language stems from congressional criticism to plans by NASA in its 2019 budget proposal to end direct ISS funding in 2025 as part of an initiative to enhance commercialization of low Earth orbit.

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