White House Extends Space Station Operations Until 2024NASA will get four more years to operate the International Space Station under a White House decision announced Wednesday.
Previously set for controlled re-entry in 2020, the orbiting outpost is now scheduled to continue operating until 2024, according to David Weaver, the U.S. space agency’s chief spokesman. That will give researchers and potential commercial investors a longer “planning horizon” and potentially attract more business to the underutilized facility, said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
Still to be determined is the role NASA’s international partners will play in the extended ISS operations, and whether Congress will support the change with adequate funding. Gerstenmaier said in a brief press conference Jan. 8 that funds planned for deorbiting the station after 2020 will be used instead to keep it running.
That costs the U.S. about $3 billion a year, he said, but funding details for the post-2020 era are unknowable now. The European Space Agency has a top-level budget meeting in early December that will decide how much support it will continue to give the space station, and Germany and France are split over funding levels for the ISS and upgrades to the Ariane launch vehicle.
Gerstenmaier said NASA has been working with all of its ISS partners, which also include Canada, Japan and Russia, on the extension since last fall.
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