NASA says its new Orion/Ares launch system could resupply ISS when it's ready in 2015, but there are doubts that NASA will be involved with the station past 2015. After the shuttle is retired (planned for 2010), the only available way of getting to the ISS will be the Russian Soyuz, which is currently in use. ISS? The biggest immediate problem with operating toward an indefinite future is a basic one: transportation to change out crews and deliver cargo such as food, water and clean clothes. Will China, Russia or Hoteliers Close in on a Post-U.S. Nonetheless, an aging station will raise the same issues that are currently forcing the space shuttle into retirement to avoid an expensive 'recertification'-particularly since no one really knows what that means, since it was never 'certified' in the first place. In practice, of course, space hardware often lasts long past its design life, and there may be ways of refurbishing those things on orbit (e.g., seals) that might degrade, while the basic structure remains sound. The original core, the Russian Zarya module, has a rated lifetime on orbit of 15 years, but it was launched almost 10 years ago and should be removed and deorbited in 2013. It is, after all, made up of many separate pieces that have been delivered and assembled at different times. I say ludicrous because of the complex engineering issues involved with rethinking the space station's life span. Plans range from the humble, like guiding it into a fiery reentry, to the ludicrous, like driving the station to the moon and parking it there. Given how long it has taken to put together the actual pieces in space-the Japanese experiment module Kibo was finally installed just a few weeks ago-and the tens of billions of dollars sunk into the station, it's understandable that many would like to see the working power of the ISS extended to 2020 or beyond.

The International Space Station isn't scheduled to be completed for two more years, but a growing chorus of engineers and executives is already brainstorming about what to do with the ISS after its life span ends in 2015.

Future international space station