On the one hand, NASA can continue to pay cost overruns on internally designed Rockets, Spacecrafts, and Space Stations. On the other hand, it can turn to New Space Companies who meet contract goals, with their own designs and use the knowledge for their own gain

The ISS was never supposed to end like this

Reagan promised that the station would bring "quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, and in metals and lifesaving medicines." It was also supposed to foster collaboration with Europe, Canada, and Japan while preserving America's preeminence in space. Then came the harsh realities of translating Reagan's vision into hardware.

 From article, (The future of the ISS remains murky, so is NASA’s post-ISS strategy. At the unveiling of the 2019 budget proposal, acting administrator Robert Lightfoot declared that freed-up ISS funds would pay for “the return of humans to the moon for long-term exploration.”

That’s a new priority, but not exactly a new plan. Even before Trump came into office, NASA was pushing the Deep Space Gateway (since renamed the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway), a space station to be situated near the moon.

Krauss is more optimistic about this project. “There is, at least in principle, something to do on the moon that would be useful, from learning how to do remote construction projects to science projects on the far side of the moon,” he says.

The problem is money. NASA’s current five-year budget map shows zero growth, and in 2019 there is only a trickle of money for new space infrastructure.

Private companies may yet come to the rescue. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos have both expressed interest in sending astronauts to the moon. Meanwhile, Bigelow Aerospace is seeking NASA support for another, more ambitious space station: an inflatable outpost, part hotel and part office park, located near the moon. Bigelow claims he can build it for $2.3 billion.

China is the wild card. Since the launch of its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, in 2003, the China National Space Administration has followed a slow but methodical strategy, sending up a pair of space stations with a third, larger station set to begin operations in 2023. In a recent interview with Chinese state media, Yang Liwei confirmed that the country is also making tentative “preparations for a manned lunar landing mission” in 2036.

In the long run, the end of NASA’s decades-long ISS project may mark the beginning of a new kind of space race: capitalist entrepreneurs versus the last communist superpower.)


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