The NASA Authorization Act of 2026 has been approved, and alongside a directive for NASA to establish a permanent Moon base, the legislation includes language extending the International Space Station to 2032.
The ISS project was set to end in 2030. In 2024, NASA awarded a contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a tug to de-orbit the outpost by 2030, assuming it lasts that long. By then the complex’s first module will have been in orbit for more than 30 years, and cracks have plagued the structure alongside hardware failures as the laboratory ages. One space agency insider observed that “it’s on its last legs.”
Then again, in a 2024 interview with The Register, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen said of the ISS: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we extended it a few years.”
NASA is to begin soliciting proposals for two commercial space stations immediately (Axiom Space and Vast spring to mind), but, mindful of a potential gap, lawmakers have also directed the agency to keep the ISS running for a few more years – certainly until at least one commercial station is launched and capable of taking over ISS operations.
The Authorization Act further cements Congress’s rejection of the dramatic cuts to NASA’s budget proposed in 2025. Programs such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory are saved, although the Mars Sample Return mission, as originally envisaged, remains effectively cancelled. The act instead calls on NASA to consider alternative, lower-cost sample return methods.
While the language surrounding the proposed Moon base evokes the Apollo-era space race, extending the ISS represents a major change of policy and concerns hardware that exists now. It also concerns maintaining a human presence in low Earth orbit, while there remains precious little detail about the Gateway station planned for lunar operations. ®