As a new and exciting era of space exploration begins with the James Webb Space Telescope, another ends. The International Space Station has a definitive end of life, scheduled for a controlled deorbiting in 2031. However, it won't be easing into retirement, with NASA planning a full load of science in the next 9 years. Yeah, those goals are a bit opaque at this point, in the general "do science for the benefit of humanity" sense, but it's not going to be like Skylab which sort of sat around unused for the majority of its time up in space.
A big question for the post-ISS future: What comes next? NASA is betting on commercial space station, which is ... ambitious. Private space flight is definitely something that exists, but an entire space station? I wouldn't be surprised to see that 2031 date pushed back a bit, since NASA said they definitely want some overlap between the first commercial station going up and the ISS coming down. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the only space stations being commercially owned. These private space companies aren't owned by the greatest of people.
No comments:
Post a Comment