Ars Technica: NASA scrambles to cut ISS activity after Trump budget—its options are not great [May 7]
However, Ars understands that the changes contemplated above were being implemented before the president's budget was released.
The International Space Station is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall – separate from President Donald Trump's plans to further cut funding – that will require dropping the number of NASA astronauts on the orbiting platform.NASA funding for the space station program is projected to be $1 billion short of previously approved budgets through fiscal 2029, ISS Program Manager Dana Weigel said Tuesday morning in an email reviewed by the Houston Chronicle. Addressing this shortfall will require the agency to have three crew members on the station instead of four starting next year, dropping the station’s overall crew to six people, as Russia will continue flying three cosmonauts. ...These changes are separate from last week’s White House budget request to cut $500 million, roughly a third of the station’s estimated operating budget, in fiscal 2026. Weigel said in the email that the president’s budget request will go through Congress and then NASA’s appropriated funds “will dictate any additional ISS reductions.”
Ars Technica: NASA scrambles to cut ISS activity after Trump budget—its options are not great [May 7]QuoteCutting crews down to sizeThe real eye-catching proposal in NASA's options is reducing the crew size from four to three.Typically, Crew Dragon missions carry two NASA astronauts, one Roscosmos cosmonaut, and an international partner astronaut. Therefore, although it appears that NASA would only be cutting its crew size by 25 percent, in reality, it would be cutting the number of NASA astronauts on Crew Dragon missions by 50 percent. Overall, this would lead to an approximately one-third decline in science conducted by the space station. (This is because there are usually three NASA astronauts on station: two from Dragon and one on each Soyuz flight.)It's difficult to see how this would result in enormous cost savings. Yes, NASA would need to send marginally fewer cargo missions to keep fewer astronauts supplied. And there would be some reduction in training costs. But it seems kind of nuts to spend decades and more than $100 billion building an orbital laboratory, putting all of this effort into developing commercial vehicles to supply the station and enlarge its crew, establishing a rigorous training program to ensure maximum science is done and then to say, well, actually we don't want to use it.NASA has not publicly announced the astronauts who will fly on Crew-12 next year, but according to sources, it has already assigned veteran astronaut Jessica Meir and newcomer Jack Hathaway, a former US Navy fighter pilot who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2021. If these changes go through, presumably one of these two would be removed from the mission.
Cutting crews down to sizeThe real eye-catching proposal in NASA's options is reducing the crew size from four to three.Typically, Crew Dragon missions carry two NASA astronauts, one Roscosmos cosmonaut, and an international partner astronaut. Therefore, although it appears that NASA would only be cutting its crew size by 25 percent, in reality, it would be cutting the number of NASA astronauts on Crew Dragon missions by 50 percent. Overall, this would lead to an approximately one-third decline in science conducted by the space station. (This is because there are usually three NASA astronauts on station: two from Dragon and one on each Soyuz flight.)It's difficult to see how this would result in enormous cost savings. Yes, NASA would need to send marginally fewer cargo missions to keep fewer astronauts supplied. And there would be some reduction in training costs. But it seems kind of nuts to spend decades and more than $100 billion building an orbital laboratory, putting all of this effort into developing commercial vehicles to supply the station and enlarge its crew, establishing a rigorous training program to ensure maximum science is done and then to say, well, actually we don't want to use it.NASA has not publicly announced the astronauts who will fly on Crew-12 next year, but according to sources, it has already assigned veteran astronaut Jessica Meir and newcomer Jack Hathaway, a former US Navy fighter pilot who joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2021. If these changes go through, presumably one of these two would be removed from the mission.
To me, if this gets enacted, it would dramatically hurt all other commercial providers (other than SpaceX). If you need less logistics, then the case for CST-100, Cygnus, DreamChaser all get even harder. And they aren't great now.This has implications for CLD, where you are trying to build a low earth ecosystem, but your only choice for cargo and crew is SpaceX. Might be good in the short term and lower cost, but you are completely dependent on SpaceX into the future.
Quote from: jarmumd on 05/07/2025 09:20 pmTo me, if this gets enacted, it would dramatically hurt all other commercial providers (other than SpaceX). If you need less logistics, then the case for CST-100, Cygnus, DreamChaser all get even harder. And they aren't great now.This has implications for CLD, where you are trying to build a low earth ecosystem, but your only choice for cargo and crew is SpaceX. Might be good in the short term and lower cost, but you are completely dependent on SpaceX into the future.If I was being cynical, I might say that this was intentional.
One way to save money on ISS would be to cancel Starliner immediately. The cost to NASA of maintaining the Starliner program is not huge, but it's not trivial either. This would also allow a further reduction in the astronaut corps beyond the reduction based on reducing the number of astronauts per mission or the number of missions.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 05/10/2025 02:22 pmOne way to save money on ISS would be to cancel Starliner immediately. The cost to NASA of maintaining the Starliner program is not huge, but it's not trivial either. This would also allow a further reduction in the astronaut corps beyond the reduction based on reducing the number of astronauts per mission or the number of missions. It would end up costing them a lot more than it saved them for political reasons.
The Russians are shifting from 6-month Soyuz missions to 8-month missions. THis of course included the US astronaut on the Soyuz crew. Has NASA considered shifting to 8-month CCP missions? I know the nominal CCP design duration is max 210 days, but NASA made a one-time decision to extend Crew-8 to max 240 days, and that decision was made under duress while the mission was in progress. They now have the time to make a more deliberate decision.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 05/10/2025 02:22 pmOne way to save money on ISS would be to cancel Starliner immediately. The cost to NASA of maintaining the Starliner program is not huge, but it's not trivial either. This would also allow a further reduction in the astronaut corps beyond the reduction based on reducing the number of astronauts per mission or the number of missions.Not worth it imo unless replaced with another provider. Redundancy is useful, especially for commercialization.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 05/14/2025 03:01 pmQuote from: DanClemmensen on 05/10/2025 02:22 pmOne way to save money on ISS would be to cancel Starliner immediately. The cost to NASA of maintaining the Starliner program is not huge, but it's not trivial either. This would also allow a further reduction in the astronaut corps beyond the reduction based on reducing the number of astronauts per mission or the number of missions.Not worth it imo unless replaced with another provider. Redundancy is useful, especially for commercialization.Starliner does not work yet, so no redundancy is lost. The assertion that Starliner will be operational in two years is just as valid today as it was in 2020.Extended mission duration will reduce the number of missions so NASA will not need all of the contracted missions (Crew-10-14, Starliner 1-6).IMO the likelihood of successful Starliner commercialization is near zero, and continued NASA support for Starliner hurts commercialization for a third provider.
What about replacing Starliner with Orion, if the latter is now not to be used for lunar missions?
True but your figure of 1.2B is wrong.OPOC for 3 Orion is 1.9 B. Even if you add operations and launch, that does not make 1.2 B. Closer to 800M.And for the Orions immediately after Artemis III a large chunk of that money is already spent anyway so … rather than the Smithsonian if we talk only using the remaining ones it could make sense.
Focus on the launch support for Artemis 2, International Space Station Commercial Crew 12 Launch,and 2 Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) missions.
The FY26 PBR appears to only include 1 commercial crew launch in FY26 - Crew 12.
Quote from: AndrewM on 06/02/2025 02:30 amThe FY26 PBR appears to only include 1 commercial crew launch in FY26 - Crew 12.No Starliner launch?
Crew transportation to ISS is currently provided using the SpaceX Crew Dragon, which was certified in 2020, and the Russian Soyuz vehicle. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is working towards resolving anomalies encountered in Crew Flight Test (CFT) and completing certification by NASA for crew transportation to ISS.
NASA states that after several media outlets asked about a status on Boeing’s Starliner progress, the Agency notes they are still tracking toward certification and flight early next year."NASA is assessing the earliest potential for a Starliner flight to the International Space Station in early 2026, pending system certification and resolution of Starliner’s technical issues. "The agency is still evaluating whether Starliner’s next flight will be in a crew or cargo configuration. NASA astronauts are training for a Starliner post-certification mission as the agency continues to review its forward plans and execute testing campaigns targeted throughout the spring and summer. "However, the agency has not yet assigned a full Starliner-1 crew for focused training. We will share more information about the next flight configuration, timing, and crew as work progresses toward certification of the Starliner for regular crew rotation flights."
Ready for any eventuality: the crews of the Soyuz and Dragon spacecrafts conducted training to practice actions in the event of an accident on the ISS
On June 4, 2025, an international team worked on the simulators of the Russian segment of the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikayev and Oleg Artemyev, NASA astronauts Christopher Williams, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adeno. They will have to work together on the station, so it is so important to practice interaction, especially in extreme situations.
