That is the wish of the White House, which hopes to end funding for the costly program within a few years, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The US plan, the paper said, involves privatizing the ISS, a low-orbit space station piloted by the US space agency NASA and developed jointly with its Russian counterpart. The station has allowed international crews — notably in collaboration with the Canadian, European and Japanese space agencies — to pursue scientific research in the environment of a low Earth orbit. The United States has already spent some $100 billion to launch, operate and support the orbital station. It was not clear, however, how private companies might profit from taking over the aging station — its first section was launched in 1998.

Source: The Guardian February 11, 2018 23:03 UTC