The Nasa announced that, once it completes its useful life, it plans to retire the International Space Station (IEE) and rent their spaces commercially. They hope that this change in the use of the facilities will allow them to save about $1,800 million per year.
The plan arises as a result of a report sent by the space agency to Congress in which it details what the process would be like to convert the IEE from a scientific base to facilities that can be rented.
Currently the IEE represents an annual expense for NASA of about $3,100 million of which about $1,2027 million are allocated to the transportation of the crew and loading of materials and supplies, while $1,300 Millions are employed to carry out station operations and research.
According to the estimates made by the agency, these expenses will remain relatively stable until the year 2027, which would mean an operating budget of more than $15,15 thousand lones.
Projections indicate that expenses would skyrocket in the middle of 2028 when NASA begins the process decommissioning of the station. This implies removing the station from orbit in the year 2031 through the use of ships that will be responsible for bringing down the IEE over a pre-established area of the Pacific Ocean, a place where satellites are commonly discarded. .
At NASA they point out that the resources that will be saved with this measure can be used for other types of research of great importance for humanity such as deep space exploration.
“This amount can be applied to NASA’s deep space exploration initiatives, which allows the Agency to explore more and faster in deep space. This amount can also be applied to other NASA programs”, refers to the space agency report.
Phil McAlister, director of commercial space flights at NASA, previously stated that saving these resources is essential to be able to carry out the Artemis missions that aim to put man back on the Moon.
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