Trump administration plans to cut funding to International Space Station

The Trump administration has announced it wants to cut off funding for the International Space Station (ISS) by 2025.

If Nasa does not contribute to the ISS - a collaborative effort with Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe - it may leave American astronauts with no ability to conduct research in space.

The proposed cut was in a draft budget reviewed by The Verge news outlet. A final budget to be submitted on 12 February could yield a different decision and is still subject to Congressional approval.

US President Donald Trump did sign a bill in March 2017 regarding transitioning ISS away from Nasa authority and funding, but the agency has not released information on that and has not responded to a request for comment on the matter as yet.

The purpose of the bill was to free up the $3-4bn a year Nasa spends on ISS - a total of $87bn US investment - to develop Nasa’s own spacecraft and research capabilities.

According to The Verge: “Nasa has been developing both a giant rocket, the Space Launch System, and a crew capsule, Orion, to take astronauts beyond lower Earth orbit.”

The announcement also comes on the heels of Mr Trump’s December 2017 comment that it was time for the US to reclaim "America's proud destiny in space".

The President was speaking about a directive he gave in December 2017 that will allow Nasa "to lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars."

Mr Trump had acknowledged the presence of Jack Schmitt at the White House event to mark the directive, the last astronaut to land on the moon 45 years ago.

"Today we pledge that he will not be the last, and I suspect we’ll be finding other places to land in addition to the moon," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump vowed that the US space program "once again leads and inspires all of humanity."

The new policy will also "establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond," the President had remarked.

He also commented on the need for American-made spacecraft.

With the proposed de-funding of the ISS, Mr Trump’s “America First” foreign policy doctrine may have been extended to outer space.

The first ISS crew launched in 2000 and 108 astronauts - including 51 American crew members and 138 other astronauts from Nasa - have taken turns living in the floating research laboratory ever since.

A slew of government and private experiments have been conducted on the station, which currently has a crew of two American, three Russian, and one Japanese astronaut.

The ISS is also aided by the private SpaceX firm, serving as a cargo delivery ship for the astronauts.

In 2014, the Obama administration extended ISS funding until 2024.

Experts have suggested extending funding until 2028, when they said the ISS will reach the end of its operational life.

The fear is that the private sector will not be ready to fill the gap in lower Earth orbit research left by ISS by the time funding is cut in 2024.