Commercial Space Stations

What happens when NASA retires the International Space Station?

NASA believes the orbiting lab will survive at least another 10 years, and there’s precedent for long-lasting space hardware. The Hubble Space Telescope recently celebrated 30 years in space. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, are still sending information to Earth.

But eventually, the space station’s parts will wear down and its technology will become outdated.

That’s why the NASA budget continues to request money for commercial low-Earth orbit development.

Without adequate funding, NASA fears history could repeat itself. There was a nine-year gap between when the space shuttle retired and when the U.S. resumed launching astronauts on American-made rockets. A similar gap in low-Earth orbit could hurt a commercial space sector that’s finally getting its footing, and it could jeopardize NASA’s ability to perform its required research in low-Earth orbit.