spacetoday.net: White House backs plan to extend ISS life to 2024

Posted: Thu, Jan 9, 2014, 6:13 AM ET (1113 GMT)
ISS during STS-135 mission (NASA)

The Obama Administration has approved plans to continue operations of the International Space Station past 2020 to at least 2024, although the station's international partners have yet to formally endorse that plan. The White House and NASA jointly announced plans Wednesday to continue operations of the ISS to 2024 in order to support space station research, planning for future exploration, and to stimulate commercial activities, including crew and cargo transportation. The announcement was tied to a global space exploration meeting in Washington this week; news of the extension was first reported late Tuesday evening by the Orlando Sentinel. NASA officials said that it may take several years for international partners to formally endorse the extension, and that they have contingency plans if one or more partners declines to support ISS operations beyond 2020.