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Trump's plan to privatize the ISS by 2025 probably won't work, NASA's inspector general says
The Trump Administration's plan to hand the International Space Station off to the private sector by 2025 probably won't work, says a government auditor. It's unlikely that any commercial companies will be able to take on the enormous costs of operating the ISS within the next six years, the auditor said.
NASA's inspector general, Paul Martin, laid out his concerns over the space station's transition during a Senate space subcommittee hearing May 16th, helmed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). During his testimony, Martin said that there's just no "sufficient business case" for space companies to take on the ISS's yearly operations costs, which are expected to reach $1.2 billion in 2024. The industries that would need the ISS, such as space tourism or space research and development, haven't panned out yet, he noted. Plus, the private space industry hasn't been very enthusiastic about using the ISS either — for research or for profit. "Candidly, the scant commercial interest shown in the station over its nearly 20 years of operation gives us pause about the agency's current plans," Martin said at the hearing.
Also at Ars Technica.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Lester on Friday May 18 2018, @08:29AM
The project is a collaboration of:
NASA (USA)
FKA (Russia)
ESA (European Union)
JAXA (Japan)
CSA (Canada)
ASI (Italy, in addition of being part of ESA)
AEB (Brazil, indirectly contraction with NASA)
With NASA a little less than 50%, most of it in the first years of construction. Nowadays, in maintenance, projects etc, much less.
So what are the plans of NASA? Privatize the currents costs of maintenance and let private companies run their own projects? Why should a private company be interested in that? If a private company has any special interest in a project or experiment, they can hire ISS to do it. So, why take care of current NASA'S maintenance part of costs? Maybe public relations, but a I think it is a little too expensive.