Assistant Director Ken Bowersox did not specify which station he was referring to.
NEW YORK, March 8th. /tass/. American experts expect that by the time the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) is completed, they will be able to use another orbital complex for research. This was announced on Friday by the assistant Director of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ken Bowersox, in charge of manned flight issues.
"Important issues need to be resolved before the station returns to Earth. First, it is necessary to have an apparatus for information [of the ISS] from orbit. Secondly, we would like to have another station so that we can continue working in low-Earth orbit," he said at a briefing for journalists. Bowersox did not specify which station he was referring to. He was responding to a journalist's request to comment on the proposal of the founder of Space X, Elon Musk, who oversees the Department for improving the efficiency of the US government (DOGE), to de-orbit the ISS and focus on preparing for a flight to Mars.
"Currently, we are acting solely in accordance with the available instructions, which are that we will use the ISS until 2030. We have reached agreements on this with all our foreign partners," the specialist stated. - Our Russian partners, of course, have not yet been able to obtain official approval [for work on the ISS] for the period after 2028. So there is a little uncertainty about the period from 2028 to 2030."
According to Bowersox, "working in low-Earth orbit is very important for the potential of ensuring the presence of mankind <...> on the Moon and on Mars." "There is still work that we would like to do in low Earth orbit," he said. - I think humanity will be working in low Earth orbit for a long time. This will help us make it possible to fly to Mars faster."
On February 20, Musk wrote on his page on the social network X that "it's time to start preparing" for the ISS launch from orbit. "She served her time. There is very little benefit from it," he argued. "We flew to Mars," Musk added.
Russia's plans for the ISS operation
In November 2022, Yuri Borisov, then head of Roscosmos, said in an interview with TASS that the duration of Russia's participation in the ISS project would depend on the technical condition of the Russian segment, the timing of the deployment of the Russian orbital station, the start of flights of Russian cosmonauts to it, and a number of other factors. The Russian side also stated that it plans to remain on the ISS until 2028. In early December 2024, Borisov noted that the final plan for the completion of the plant's operation would be clarified with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
The ISS has been in orbit since November 20, 1998. The mass of the station is about 435 tons, and with docked ships it can reach 470 tons. The project participants are Russia, Canada, the USA, Japan and 10 member states of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Sweden and Switzerland).
