The U.S. is at risk of losing leadership in low Earth orbit to China if commercial space stations do not come to fruition before the International Space Station plunges into the sea, two industry officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Background
The ISS is set to be decommissioned in 2030 and commercial providers are preparing to pick up the mantle of hosting people and experiments aboard commercial low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations. At the hearing, officials from two companies building commercial space stations worried that China’s Tiangong space station could become the only habitat in LEO if commercial stations aren’t operational within the next six years.
“If commercial options are not available ahead of decommissioning, our current partner nations will have no choice but to gravitate toward China,” said Dylan Taylor, chairman and CEO of Voyager, which is building the Starlab station.
Mary Lynne Dittmar, Axiom’s chief government and external relations officer, called for an “immediate course correction” by lawmakers. “If we have a gap in American presence in low Earth orbit, the only winner will be China.”
Money problems
Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, a ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, blamed the “dysfunctional appropriations process” in part for putting America’s leadership in LEO at risk.
“If we in Congress aren’t prepared to appropriate the required resources, we will not be successful,” Lofgren said. “Continuing to operate the ISS while also procuring a deorbit vehicle and providing support to commercial LEO destinations really does require sustained investment if we’re going to make sure America stays first in low Earth orbit.”
Recommendations
Dittmar recommended several budgetary priorities, including maintaining stable funding for the ISS, paying for a vehicle to deorbit the station, accelerating contracts to companies building commercial LEO destinations (CLDs), and funding the CLD program at $295 million.
She also recommended extending operation of the ISS past 2030, if needed, until at least one commercial station is up and running.
This story originally appeared on Payload and is republished here with permission.
Accedi per aggiungere un commento
Altri post in questo gruppo
In May of 1995, the video game industry hosted its first major trade show. Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was designed to shine a spotlight on games, and every major player wanted to stand in
Robinhood cofounder and CEO Vlad Tenev channeled Hollywood glamour last month in Cannes at an extravagantly produced event unveiling of the trading platform’s newest products, including a tokenize
In the mid-1990s, Hollywood began trying to envision the internet (sometimes called the “information superhighway”) and its implications for life and culture. Some of its attempts have aged better
Ever since AI chatbots arrived, it feels as if the media has been on the losing end o
Aside from the obvious, one of the best parts of the work-from-home revolution is being able to outfit your workspace as you see fit.
And if you spend your days squinting at a tiny lapto
Child psychologists tell us that around the age of five or six, children begin to seriously contemplate the world around them. It’s a glorious moment every parent recognizes—when young minds start
During January’s unprecedented wildfires in Los Angeles, Watch Duty—a digital platform providing real-time fire data—became the go-to app for tracking the unfolding disaster and is credit
