Space Station Reality Check: Now What?

No one really believes the United States would dump the International Space Station into the ocean just five years after the $100 billion project is finally finished, but here's the reality: NASA has no budget for the program beyond 2015.

Saving the space station, and possibly expanding the project, emerged this week as a top priority for two subcommittees of the presidential panel reviewing the U.S. human space program.

"We didn't start off with that perspective," committee member and former astronaut Sally Ride, told colleagues on the panel. "We don't think the deorbit of the International Space Station in 2016 makes sense."

Rather than killing the program, panel members are considering recommending an expanded role for the station, both in mission and scope, such as adding new partners, including China, into the program.

"We can use the partnership as training ground for how we would do an international exploration effort," added panel member Leroy Chiao, also a former astronaut.

"Some potential candidate nations are financially pretty healthy, so it's not unreasonable to think that there could be some cost offsets for the current partners," he added.

A survey of the station partners shows "strong unanimous support," for continuing the program through at least 2020, said panel member Lester Lyles.

"Their political leaders are looking for a return on their investments," he said.

No matter what the United States decides, Russia has said it will continue operating the station, though NASA believes that is not technically possible.

"They're pretty clever and we should not underestimate their ability to do something like that," said Chiao, who served as a station commander for six months.

The panel is scheduled to make its report to the White House by Aug. 31.