TRUMP STUDIES COMMERCIALIZING SPACE STATION

The Trump administration wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting real estate venture run by private industry.

The White House plans to stop funding for the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the orbiting laboratory altogether, and is working on a transition plan that could turn the station over to the private sector, according to an internal NASA document obtained by The Washington Post.

In its budget request to be released Monday, the administration would request US$150 million in fiscal year 2019, with more in additional years, to fund the development of ISS “commercial entities.”