Sustaining and Utilizing the International Space Station

• The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 extended ISS operations through 2020. The now completed International Space Station (ISS) faces several significant challenges that may impede efforts to maximize utilization of its research facilities through that time. These include the retirement of the Space Shuttle and the loss of its unmatched capacity to move cargo and astronauts to and from the station.
• GAO has previously reported that the International Space Station will face a significant cargo supply shortfall without the Space Shuttle’s great capacity to deliver cargo to the station and return it to earth. NASA plans on using a mixed fleet of vehicles, including those developed by international and commercial partners, to service the space station on an interim basis. However, international partners’ vehicles alone cannot fully satisfy the space station’s cargo resupply needs. Without a domestic cargo resupply capability to augment this mixed fleet approach, NASA faces a 40 metric ton (approximately 88,000 pounds) cargo resupply shortfall between 2010 and 2015.
• NASA is sponsoring commercial efforts to develop vehicles capable of carrying cargo to the station through the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project, and the administration has endorsed this approach. One of the commercial vehicles has been successfully launched into orbit. The aggressive development schedules and the integration with the space station of the commercial spacecraft remain areas of concern, leaving little room for the unexpected. Delays in the development of these commercial vehicles could impact utilization of the ISS.
• To better maximize the ISS’s research capability, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 instructs NASA to provide initial financial assistance to and enter into a cooperative agreement with a non-profit organization to manage the research activities of the ISS national laboratory.
• Additionally, the Act also requires NASA to outline a plan for ensuring essential spares are available to support ISS operations through 2020. GAO is currently reviewing NASA’s planned approach for sustaining the ISS by certifying whether the ISS is structurally sound to support extended operations, determining if critical subsystems can safely support extended operations, and identifying the spares necessary to support operations through 2020.

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• Planning efforts for ensuring essential spares are available and can be transported to the ISS are underway, but more work needs to be done. For example, analyses necessary to certify structural health will continue until at least 2013. Further, the ISS program does not yet have enough on-orbit experience with some systems to accurately estimate spares needed to support operations through 2020.
• NASA’s cooperative agreement with a non-profit may assist in achieving full utilization of the ISS as a research facility. GAO previously reported three common practices of other national laboratories and other large science institutions that could benefit NASA: a centralized management body responsible for prioritizing and selecting research; a staff that provides in-house scientific and technical expertise; and robust user outreach and active education and recruitment of users.

  Highlights of GAO-10-9 (PDF)

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International Space Station

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