US extends International Space Stations life through 2030

Washington: The International Space Station (ISS) has been given authorisation by the United States government to extend its operational life through 2030, though the structure is going through its final years of operations and has reported many malfunctions and damages last year, India Today reported.

The US administration made the move with the backing of the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said that the ISS is a beacon of peaceful international collaboration and has benefited humanity with scientific, educational and technological developments for 20 years. He is glad the US government is continuing its operations through 2030, he said.

The space station was to expire in 2025 which orbits the Earth every 92 minutes and travels at a speed of 27,576 kmph. The microgravity laboratory has hosted 4,200 space scientists in more than 3,000 research missions since the 1990s. Around 110 countries had become part of research in the station. It had played key roles in many experiments deep into space.

NASA said that extending operations of the ISS would enable another productive decade of research. In the 2020s, the station could be converted to a low-Earth orbit, one or more commercially owned destinations.

Meanwhile, Russia had stated leaving the ISS project and building its own space station like China. Roscosmos chief had announced its plans to make a more efficient space station than ISS, for which scheduled deployments will commence in 5 to 6 years. Russian station will have artificial intelligence and extravehicular robots to reduce the pressure of cosmonauts who does maintenance at orbital outposts, Roscosmos chief had announced.