Posted: Sat, Dec 4, 2021, 10:40 AM ET (1540 GMT)
NASA's inspector general warned of a gap in low Earth orbit between the International Space Station and commercial successors. In a report Tuesday, the inspector general said that persistent, if small, air leaks in one Russian module, whose cause has yet to be understood, "raises potential implications for the Station's long-term structural health." NASA hopes to operate the ISS through the end of the decade, transitioning to commercial space stations starting in the late 2020s. However, the report said NASA's projected development schedules for those stations are optimistic, and that any commercial station "is not likely to be ready until well after 2030."

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  TechCrunch article
•  NASA OIG report