CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Sen. Bill Nelson is hitting back after a recent report that the Trump administration's 2019 budget proposal would end support for the International Space Station by 2025.
President Donald Trump won't release the official budget request until Feb. 12, but The Verge's Loren Grush reported Wednesday that the final proposal includes a directive to end funding for the 2-decade-old NASA program.
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Canceling funding for the ISS would be devastating for NASA's international relationships, the space program and many scientists who rely on the orbiting laboratory to conduct experiments and testing in low gravity.
Nelson, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, that oversees NASA, had harsh words for any proposal which would eliminate the space agency's most successful program.
“If the administration plans to abruptly pull us out of the International Space Station in 2025, they’re going to have a fight on their hands," Nelson said in a statement. "Such a move would likely decimate Florida’s blossoming commercial space industry, which is one of the reasons why Congress has directed NASA to look at extending the ISS to 2028 and to provide a plan to help scientists and researchers continue experimenting in low-Earth orbit beyond that.”
Under President Obama's administration, Congress approved funding for the space station until 2024. What happens next has been up for debate.
Currently NASA relies on the Russian Space Agency to launch its astronauts to the space station and bring them home. The Commercial Crew Program using SpaceX and Boeing spacecraft to shuttle American crew won't be ready until the end of 2018 -- at the earliest.
Other commercial companies have announced plans to launch Earth, lunar or Mars orbiting modules, but officials say those won't be ready before funding is cut to the International Space Station.
Robert Bigelow, CEO of Bigelow Aerospace, a commercial company that currently has an inflatable room on the space station said Thursday he is ready to be part of a discussion for a possible alternative.
“It doesn't’t have to be a zero-sum game,” Bigelow said in a statement. “ISS operations should continue provided there are aggressive initiatives to use commercial platforms for human space operations in parallel with the continued use of the ISS until such time that NASA can safely relieve itself of the enormous financial burden.”