ISS might cease to operate after 2025: suggests new proposal for budget by Trump administration
With Donald Trump as the new president of America, NASA might lose its funding for ISS mission from the looks of the proposed budget plans by 2025. Trump’s administration has been pitching in many future plans for the space agency but no monetary benefits to vouch for the same. This proposal if approved might terminate the funding for ISS until a feasible alternative is constructed. The NASA astronauts shall be left in the ground level with a total shutdown of the ISS. The final budget plan is due on 12th February.
Currently, NASA is being provided with a fund of around $3-$4 billion each year for the ISS mission which is a substantial section of the overall budget. This shutdown shall affect the commercial space agencies that depend on ISS for their gravity-less experiments. The ISS was estimated to shut down by the year 2028 after the end of its life which would likely be a result of mechanical and thermal stress. The commercial pace agencies have been pushing NASA to prolong the operation of ISS until its estimated end.
President Donald Trump had signed the act previous year which instigated the agency to come up with an alternative funding solution for ISS while directing a mission to the moon as a test run for future mission on Mars. The 2nd mission requires a major section of the budget which shall be obtained from the budget withdrawal for ISS.
However, an early withdrawal of the support could leave a gap for the human activities being done on the lower orbit of Earth. ISS shutdown will leave very few opportunities for training astronauts, testing new systems in minimum gravity as well as carrying out tests for long-term mission for humans on space. Also, the commercial space based companies do not want to lose a major platform like ISS which shall render them with no option for test sites.
