U.S. may withdraw space station project in 2016+

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Kyodo) — The United States may withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project in 2016 in order to funnel funds to a new U.S. space exploration initiative aimed at sending astronauts to the moon and eventually Mars, sources familiar with the case said Sunday.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is considering halting research at the envisaged space station at the end of September 2016 to end its involvement in the project, the sources said.

NASA may then entrust its share of the project to private-sector U.S. companies or other countries, they said.

A total of 16 countries, including Canada, Japan, Russia and European countries, are currently involved in the U.S.-initiated project to construct a space station by 2010 and conduct research there for the following 10 years.

If the U.S. withdraws from the project, other members may have to shoulder more costs for the ISS.

The sources said the U.S. plans for the time being to conduct research at the ISS to help promote the new space exploration initiative announced earlier this month by President George W. Bush.

To that end, NASA plans to continue to earmark budgets for the ISS project until fiscal 2016, which ends in September 2016, although the spending is gradually reduced, the sources said.

But nothing has been decided about ISS-related budgets after fiscal 2016, they said.

Bush’s new initiative calls for a return to the moon as early as 2015 and an eventual trip to Mars.

As part of the initiative, NASA will retire the space shuttle once the ISS is completed in order to make way for a new spacecraft called the Crew Exploration Vehicle that would transport astronauts.

With mounting expenditures for the new initiative, there is a strong possibility that NASA will stop earmarking budgets for the ISS project, the sources said.