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.
Login to add comment
Other posts in this group
TikTok is the new doctor’s office, quickly becoming a go-to platform for medical advice. Unfortunately, much of that advice is pretty sketchy.
A new report by the healthcare software fi
Back in 1979, Sony cofounder Masaru Ibuka was looking for a way to listen to classical music on long-haul flights. In response, his company’s engineers dreamed up the Walkman, ordering 30,000 unit
Even as the latest phones and wearables tout speech recognition with unprecedented accuracy and spatial computing products flirt with replacing tablets and laptops, physical keyboards remain belov
One of the most pleasant surprises about this year’s best new apps have nothing to do with AI.
While AI tools are a frothy area for big tech companies and venture capitalists, ther
The world of enterprise tech is built on sturdy foundations. For decades, systems of record—the databases, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms
Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U.S. presidential election,
Russell Hedrick, a North Carolina farmer, flies drones to spray fertilizers on his corn, soybean and wheat fields at a fraction of what it
