Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 30, 2025

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

While it could still be transferred to and operated by a consortium of “private” companies, it appears that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to end its operation of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030, and to thereafter begin operations to deorbit the large space station.

In June 2024 NASA awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX Corporation a contract to develop a larger version of its Dragon cargo/manned spaceship to push the ISS out of orbit.

So, there could be about five years remaining for the United States to obtain additional political and even military benefits from its estimated $75 to $100 billion investment in the ISS, with an annual operating bill to U.S. taxpayers of $3 to $4 billion.

Already, the scientific and economic benefits of the U.S. investment in the ISS have been enormous, to include advances in knowledge of human health in space, study of microgravity effects, development of new materials in space, robotics and Earth observation.

And while not the subject of deliberate planned outcomes the U.S. investment in the ISS has yielded clear political benefits, to include advancing an early post-Cold War peaceful relationship with the former Soviet Union — the main partner in building the ISS — and the welcoming of 56 non-American and non-Russian visitors to the ISS.

The list of countries sending their people, either as “crew” or as “visitors” include: Japan (11); Canada (9): Italy (6); France (4): Germany (4); Saudi Arabia (2); United Arab Emirates (2); India (1); Poland (1); Hungary (1); Belarus (1); Belgium (1); Brazil (1); Denmark (1); Great Britain (1); Israel (1); Kazakhstan (1); Malaysia (1); Netherlands (2); South Africa (1); South Korea (1); Spain (1); Sweden (1); and Turkey (1).

A key benefit is that all of these non-U.S., non-Russian crew and visitors gain the experience of training in the United States and return to their home countries to contribute to their respective space programs and to advance space cooperation with the United States and other democracies.

Of these 24 crew/visitor countries other than the U.S. and Russia, only Belarus, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Turkey are not members of the now 56-nation Artemis Accords of 2020 that set out rules for conduct and transparency on the Moon.

But with the increasing likelihood that there may be only a few years left for the ISS, plus the likelihood that new private sector replacement space stations may take many years to be realized, it is rational that the U.S. should now look to gain some additional political benefit from its long and expensive ISS investment.

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  Making the most of the International Space Station while it remains