Meanwhile the Tiangong space station began construction in 2021 and has been continuously crewed since June 2022. It currently has capacity for six people, and via UNOOSA-organized cooperation has plans to host experiments from 17 countries including Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Spain. The first non-Chinese person to travel there will likely be from Pakistan. (The US would be welcome too but Congress currently prohibits NASA from participating.)
To be clear, I want way more NASA funding. The Space Force getting double the NASA budget makes my blood boil. The current gov is shafting NASA with a bad budget and an idiot for an interim admin.
Their budget sucks because of self-interested, entrenched congresspeople who don’t care about science or progress and only care about the same old jobs in their district for reelection. And vindictive officials who cut jobs at Goddard and HQ because they’re in blue districts. And a government trying to “starve the beast” and burn down anything they can.
In that environment, the limited NASA budget is stuck in a zero-sum game, so they should spin off whatever easy stuff they can to focus their limited resources on pushing the boundaries.
Thales Alenia built the ISS USOS. Boeing flies ISS. Axiom, Vast, Voyager, and more are building the next American space stations. What’s the difference?