The International Space Station (ISS) will be deorbited in 2030-2031, US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) head Bill Nelson has said, Trend reports citing TASS.
"We're going to deorbit it. It is aging. We're going to deorbit it and 2030-31," he said during hearings at the US House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
In his words, further orbital activities will be referred to private companies.
"We are now giving contracts to several commercial companies to create commercial space stations," Nelson added.
Earlier, the NASA chief told Reuters in an interview that he expected Russian-US cooperation on the ISS project to continue until 2030. NASA budget for fiscal year 2024 (the period between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024) says that financing for ISS operations will continue until at least 2030.