As the US sets its sights on establishing a permanent base on the moon, its foothold in an area of space much closer to home is growing more uncertain.
Located in low-Earth orbit — or LEO, a region that stretches up to 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) above ground — the aging International Space Station has hosted nearly 300 people over more than 25 years of continuous habitation, but its retirement is looming. The plan is for new space stations developed by commercial companies to fill the void, providing home bases for astronauts from NASA and its international partners.
However, with the International Space Station’s end expected as soon as 2030, NASA is racing against the clock. And the stakes of having a continuous presence in orbit go far beyond science objectives.
Leaving LEO without a functioning space station on which NASA astronauts can conduct research necessary to support missions deeper into space would create a dire gap in the United States’ in-space capabilities and even pose a national security risk, experts warn.
“It’s an expression of our values. I’ll call it soft power,” said Dylan Taylor, the CEO of Voyager Technologies, one of the companies involved in the development of a commercial space station concept. “China has a new, advanced space station…so it’s really important that we have continuous human presence on orbit.”