3 Reasons Trump ’s Plan to Privatize the International Space Station Won’t (and Shouldn’t) Happen

Dabbling in real estate and looking for a way to invest hundreds of millions of dollars with virtually no chance of return? Then the International Space Station (ISS) is for you. Discontinuing funding for space station operations after 2024 and turning the job over to the private sector after that is something the Trump Administration is currently contemplating, the Washington Post reports. The good news is this will surely never happen. The bad news is that the White House is even considering a plan that fails on so many levels. Here are the three big ones. Privatizing the Space Station is a fiscal loser The International Space Station was first proposed in 1984 by then-President Ronald Reagan. Back then it was called the Freedom Space Station, and back then it was supposed to cost just $8 billion ($19 billion in 2017 dollars). Things haven’t worked out quite that way, with $100 billion the generally accepted figure for what the U.S. has spent on the station so far — and many analysts putting the figure closer to $150 billion, once you take support costs into consideration. Just maintaining the completed station costs up to $4 billion per year — big money for a space agency whose overall annual budget is less than $20 billion. So it’s an investment that the government might well want to unload. But as with all distressed properties, the question is, who would want it? The station was never intended to be a money-making operation, and after more than ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized budgets Government international space station NASA Science trump Source Type: news