Budget cuts: NASA plans savings for the ISS

Next year, the US space agency National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) will have to make do with a significantly smaller budget than before. This is likely to have an impact on activities on the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA is currently examining various measures to cut costs, reports the US online magazine Ars Technica, citing various sources. The US government wants to cut NASA's budget by almost 25 percent.

One of the measures NASA is considering is to reduce the crew of the Crew Dragon space shuttle by one person. Instead of a four-person crew, a three-person crew will then fly to the ISS. This could be implemented as early as February 2026.

The Crew Dragon normally carries two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a member of one of the partner countries. In concrete terms, this would mean that in future only one astronaut would fly to the ISS instead of two. The US presence on the station would therefore be halved.

Astronauts to stay longer on the ISS

An extension of the astronauts' stay is also being considered. In future, they are to stay on the station for eight months. The current limit is six months. The consequence of this would be a reduction in the number of flights to the ISS: The Crew Dragon would fly three missions to the ISS in two years instead of the current four. This would significantly reduce transportation costs.

Finally, NASA is considering canceling a planned upgrade of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). The AMS is a scientific instrument on the ISS that measures cosmic radiation.

The upgrade would significantly improve the performance of the instrument. However, the AMS has been in operation since 2011 and has already collected a great deal of data in that time. This measure would therefore be manageable.

Roskosmos also wants to save costs

Reducing the number of flights by extending the duration of the mission is an obvious cost-saving measure, as its impact is relatively small. Roskosmos, the Russian counterpart to NASA, is also considering this.

The most painful option for NASA would probably be to reduce the number of Crew Dragon flights. This would mean that the US presence on the ISS would be reduced by a third – instead of three, there would only be two US astronauts on the ISS. One US astronaut still flies on every mission of the Russian Soyuz space shuttle.

Last week, the US government presented the draft budget for the space agency for 2026. According to this, NASA will have 18.8 billion US dollars at its disposal in the coming year. The current budget amounts to 24.9 billion US dollars. This corresponds to a cut of almost 25 percent. In addition to the measures mentioned, NASA will probably have to reduce its workforce.

(wpl)