Proposed NASA Budget Includes Cuts To Earth Science, ISS Written 13 February 2018

Aerospace America reports that the White House has released a $19.9 billion budget proposal for NASA during fiscal year 2019, which sets the “end of fiscal 2024 as a firm deadline for ending NASA’s direct funding for the International Space Station, proposes $10 billion for human exploration, including starting up a lunar robotic exploration program as a precursor to sending astronauts, and hits Earth science and education hard.” The budget would include $150 million in new funding for a program to encourage more commercial partnerships on the ISS to enable them to be prepared to take over space station operations in 2025. Former astronaut Leroy Chaio called it a “mistake to end the ISS to ostensibly fund the exploration program,” and called the space station an “important testing ground for biomedical countermeasures and engineering systems.” The Boeing Company, NASA’s prime contractor for the ISS, has estimated that “continued maintenance and upgrades would extend the station’s lifespan well into 2040.”
More Info (Aerospace America – By Tom Risen, staff reporter)