Space Station Users Seeking More Certainty about its Future

摘要

As NASA takes steps to make it easier for researchers and companies to use the International Space Station, some of those potential users want more guidance about how long the station will be around and what might replace it. "When is ISS going to end? When will it terminate? We don't know, and that's a problem," John Shannon, Boeing vice president and program manager for NASA's Space Launch System exploration-class rocket, said in a presentation at the ISS Research and Development Conference here July 8. In early 2014, NASA announced it planned to extend operations of the ISS from 2020 through at least 2024. Since then, the governments of Russia and Canada have endorsed that extension, but the other two major partners, Europe and Japan, have yet to decide on whether to participate.