The International Space Station (ISS) will come to an end in 2030when a Spacex vehicle existed said orbital laboratory safely. Once its useful life is reached, the ISS will have provided a wide variety of international missions since 2000 and will have maintained a constant presence in the low terrestrial orbit for three decades, however, although NASA’s plans point to the ISS will operate up to at least 2030 and then an operation will be deploy fulfilled its purpose. “
But regardless of the useful life, The ISS is not going through its best moment. According to him Spacenews newspapermembers of a NASA security panel are “deeply concerned” about the security of the International Space Station, due to the scarce financing and long -standing problems.
The ISS situation is quite worrying
During a public meeting of the Aerospace Security Advisory Panel, members of the US Space Agency expressed their growing concern for the risks facing ISS as its end approaches. “The ISS has entered the most risky period of its existence,” said Rich Williams, a panel member, arguing that there are “growing risks” for the station.
The mentioned medium indicates that some of these risks are related to leaks in a lobby of the Zvezda module and the development of exorbitation plans – Specially in case of emergency before its scheduled withdrawal at the end of the decade, prior to the arrival of the American exorbitant vehicle (USDV) of Spacex. In addition, as if that were not enough, the ISS also faces the need to have enough spare parts For life support systems and delays in cargo refueling vehicles.
“Before all these risks there is an important budget deficit of the ISS,” said Williams. “All these risks are, in fact, a consequence of the budget deficit And, together, they contribute to a possible commitment of the transition plan to the low terrestrial orbit. “
The ISS problems are related to the lack of budget
Williams said at the public meeting of the Aerospace Security Advisory Panel that There is “an important budget deficit of the International Space Station”. In addition, data shared by Spacenews verifies this reduction in the Operations and Maintenance Budget of the ISS, from 1,030 million dollars in 2023 to 993 million dollars in 2024.
Given this cut, Williams indicates that, “for the ISS, it is fundamental Maintain an adequate budget and resources until the vehicle returns safelyto. The panel values the demonstrated operational excellence of the ISS program, but remains deeply concerned about the growing and waterfall risk that the program will face in the coming years. “
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