NASA will consider turning the International Space Station (ISS) over to a commercial operator within five to 10 years to fund other exploration priorities, according to the space agency's administrator, Daniel Goldin. The proposal takes Nasa beyond its previously suggested plan to allow commercial companies to take up to a 30% share in the ISS.
The new policy will be necessary to enable NASA to use its funds to move on from earth orbit to the exploration of the solar system and beyond. "We can't afford solar system exploration until we turn over these earth-orbit activities to the cutting edge of the private sector," says Goldin.
While Nasa considers its options for relieving itself of the financial burden of the ISS, programme managers have more immediate problems. Continuing software problems with the NASA elements of the ISS, particularly the US Laboratory Module, may force the US space agency to ask Russia to delay from 12 November until next year the launch of the Zvezda service module. The US Lab module was due for launch next August, but may be deferred until December.
The Unity-Zarya elements of the ISS have been unmanned since May. The next ISS Shuttle mission is not scheduled until late January. Other Shuttle assembly flights for next year have been delayed.
The US Navy Research Laboratory's Interim Control Module, being developed for use on the ISS should the launch of the Zvezda fail, may be sent to the space station anyway, to improve orbit maintenance capability.
Source: Flight International
