The United States is preparing to deorbit the International Space Station amid Chinese competition

Before International Space Station was launched into orbit in 1998, the United States signed a document with several other countries to accept the peaceful use of the orbital laboratory. The agreement includes Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries. China was left out of the plan.

Almost a decade later, China has expressed interest in joining those aboard the space station. The European Space Agency has signaled support for the addition, along with South Korea. The final decision was ultimately opposed by the United States.

“I think you have to understand that Congress gave us very clear direction in 2011.” Managing Director of NASA Pam Melroy said. “Any bilateral cooperation with China had to be certified as not sharing any information that would give China a certain advantage.”

In 2011, Congress included in a direction of the spending bill to prohibit the collaboration between NASA and China when it comes to some scientific research, even in space. Lawmakers argued that China’s program was secret and too closely tied to its military.

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China has become a new threat, establishing a new space race. (Starlab)

“I think there’s no doubt that I’m an economic competitor and I’m also a competitor for geopolitical leadership,” Melroy said.

China began to develop their own space station. It launched and deorbited a pair of short-term space laboratories between 2011 and 2018. It launched the first part of its Tiangong Space Station, which translates to Celestial Palace, in 2011.

“We are laser focused on China now. China is a threat. We are in a new one space race,” said Voyager Space Station and International Space Station President Jeffrey Manber.

Voyager is one of three companies contracted by NASA to work on developing a new space station. Voyager says it is on pace to launch its Starlab in 2028. There are many fears that NASA will face funding cuts. If there are delays for the companies designing the next space stations, NASA will deorbit the space station without a replacement ready to go.

Melroy insists the agency won’t let China be the sole operator of an orbiting space station, but the story resonates with that of the space shuttle program.

The American space shuttle was the first reusable aircraft in the world. It launched like a missile and landed like an airplane. In 2004, then President George W. Bush announced a new space initiative, which included retiring the shuttle by 2010 and conducting the first manned mission on a new spacecraft later in 2014.

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“The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be able to transport astronauts and scientists to the space station after the shuttle is retired,” Bush said in 2004.

The government considered several contractors to develop the vehicle under the constellation program. Over the next few years, program delays and funding problems led Obama administration to eliminate the program from its 2011 budget.

“Pursuing this new strategy requires reviewing the old strategy. In part, this is because the old strategy, including the Constellation program, was not fulfilling its promise in many ways,” then President Barack Obama said in April 2010.

The administration instead ordered more than $6 billion to support commercial companies that build spacecraft. The shuttle program came to an end a year later. American races were not yet available. The United States has been forced to rely on Russia for continued space travel.

“It was hard times. I think it was the right decision. The time of the shuttle was coming to an end. We need to make a strategic investment in our industry to develop the ability to take humans to space,” said Melroy . “There were a lot of people who thought we canceled the space program.”

NASA has finally launched a American made rifle that could bring humans to the space station, nine years after the shuttle’s retirement. That was a six-year delay from Bush’s initial projection. SpaceX’s 2020 launch also marked the first of a commercial rocket on US soil.

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China has created a new competition for space exploration. (Arkisys)

As NASA faces the same prospect once again, officials insist they have a different strategy for competing in space with China.

“I think it is different in the sense that we are still the leader. We intend to remain the leader. We intend to remain the partner of choice. We work very well with our international partners, and they want to continue working with us.” Melroy said.

Only Chinese Taikonauts have visited the Tiangong Space Station. The country has expressed openness to welcoming astronauts from other countries. Beijing has increased cooperation with Sweden, Russia and Italy. In recent months, China’s first International Space Station was launched on a commercial Chinese rocket. It includes Oman’s first satellite, which is equipped with artificial intelligence for urban planning, forest monitoring and disaster management.

If China becomes the only permanent presence in space, international partners may be forced to rely on Taikonauts for long-term needs. low earth orbit. Commercial companies may also be forced to do the same.

“We have to be a little careful about technology transfer and how we really connect with international companies to make sure that we’re not sort of giving away things associated with it,” said Arkisys CEO Dave Barnhart.

California-based Arkisys is working on a robotic service port for companies to use while in orbit.

“We can provide both the cargo, the supplies, the robotic handling capability, the fuel, everything that’s needed to support a service architecture,” Barnhart said.

Barnhart added that the port could help keep it going the United States competitive in space if a commercial station is not ready to go when the space station is disabled. While the port would be robotic and have no humans on board, it would also give the US some form of permanent presence.

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“We’re really hoping that we’ll be a bridge between when the (space station) is decommissioned and when the new commercial space stations are up there,” Barnhart said. “We are autonomous, we can move much faster. We can allow different orbital transfer vehicles to enter, to carry cargo, to carry fuel, to carry new cargoes.”