14 DAY TRIAL // In an announcement made yesterday, December 2, officials at the American space agency revealed that the organization is looking to pass on its control over science experiments carried out by the United States on the International Space Station (ISS) to a non-profit organization.
According to the officials who made the announcement, what NASA is looking for is “an independent, nonprofit research management organization to develop and manage the US portion of the station.”
The contract under which the ISS is being developed does not prohibit participating space agencies to relinquish control of experiments they set up aboard the orbital facility.
Regardless of this, NASA had no intention of relinquishing its control over the experiments a few months ago. This course of action was established when Senate approved the 2010 NASA Authorization Bill.
One of its provisions states that the federal agency needs to hand over control of experiments to other entities. “NASA recognizes the station is an extraordinary asset for the nation,” explained NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
“Scientific research and development and education are critical to our national growth and prosperity as a high-technology society,” he went on to say, quoted by Space.
“The station offers exceptional opportunities to contribute to this growth. By taking this action, we are ensuring the station is available for broad, meaningful and sustained use,” the official argued.
The $100 billion space station is being built by no less than 15 countries and five space agencies – NASA, RosCosmos, the Japanese JAXA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The construction process began with the launch of the first Russian module in space in 2008, and is scheduled to conclude sometime next year. The orbital facility is now about 98 percent complete.
Back in 2005, officials at NASA designated the US-owned portion of the ISS a National Laboratory, to have the same status as labs such as Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley and Los Alamos.
The new Authorization Bill calls for a private organization to manage all research being conducted on the station using American capabilities. But the new piece of legislation also brings positive news, namely that support for the ISS has been extended from 2015 to 2020.
“The organization will stimulate uses of the station as a national laboratory and maximize the US investment in this initiative,” officials at the American space agency explained in a statement.
“The selected organization will capitalize on the unique venue of the orbiting laboratory as a national resource; and develop and manage a diversified research and development portfolio based on U.S. needs for basic and applied research in a variety of fields,” they concluded.