Good news for the International Space Stationthe United States Congress has decided to approve the extension of the country’s participation until 2030. This extension was possible thanks to the adoption of the bill CHIPS or “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors” of 2022 which includes a permission for NASA. This authorization officially extends from 6 years the participation of the American space agency in the ISS project.
The CHIPS bill has as its main objective to increase the production of semiconductors in the United States to meet the shortage caused by the pandemic. It has now been approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives and just waiting for President Joe Biden’s signature to become law.
NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson, did not fail to react to this milestone. He said he was particularly pleased that Congress had approved the NASA Authorization Act of 2022. This is the first clearance for NASA in 5 years.
A bright future for NASA
According to Nelson, this bill shows that NASA’s many missions have continued bipartisan support. Among these missions, there is the agency’s approach to the Moon and Mars, but also the extension of the United States’ participation in the ISS project until 2030.
Nelson added that with the strong support of the Biden-Harris administration, as well as this authorization, NASA will be able to continue to advance scientific discoveries, enable sustainable aviation, but also address climate change and much more. .
The opinion of the partners counts
Thus, on the United States side, the management of the ISS will be able to continue until 2030. However, the life of the station does not depend solely on the American government, the other partner agencies must also agree.
Among the partners of the United States, there are Russian space agency Roscosmos. The latter does not seem not fully committed to ISS life extension. We know from a recent announcement that Russia intends to leave the ISS project as soon as its own station is ready. However, this should not happen before 2028.
The future will tell us if the ISS will still be able to operate normally until the end of this decade.
SOURCE: Space.com