NASA gets to stay inside the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030.
President Joe Biden has officially signed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act into law, along with the NASA Authorization bill that allows NASA to participate in the ISS until 2030, per Space.com.
The NASA Authorization bill is the first signed authorization for the space agency in years, with former President Donald Trump signing the 2017 authorization act for NASA in 2017, per NASA.
CHIPS Act's Impact On NASA
President Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law on August 9, allowing the government to commit $53 billion to boost the country's semiconductor industry and allowing NASA to continue participating in the ISS until 2030.
Specifically, the authorization bill included in the CHIPS Act allows NASA to continue its operations in the ISS through September 2030, granting the space agency a six-year extension.
The CHIPS Act previously passed Congress in late July, an act that NASA administrator Bill Nelson described as a demonstration of continued bipartisan support for NASA's many missions.
The Act's signing also means that Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman will have enough time to further develop the commercial space stations that will serve as the ISS' replacement when it is retired by the end of the 2020s.
You may remember that NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have raised concerns about the progress of the commercial space stations.
Both parties are worried that the three commercial space stations developed by the companies NASA commissioned won't be ready in time to replace the ISS.
However, NASA and the three companies assured both parties and the public that they were on schedule. They also mentioned that the ASAP and OIG were wrong to compare the space stations' development with more traditional government programs as the commissioned companies are being pushed to be the first to launch their space station.
However, there is a catch to NASA's continued presence in the ISS. Although the US has given the extension NASA needs, the program's other partner agencies, such as the space agencies of Canada, Japan, Europe, and Russia, must agree to the extension as well, per a separate Space.com article.
While the Canadian, European, and Japanese space agencies are likely to approve, Russia's approval may be tricky to get as it already announced its intention to withdraw from the ISS after 2024.
However, there is reason to count on Russian support as the country's space station won't be up and running until 2028 at the earliest, meaning that they are likely to remain in the ISS until then.
Other Benefits of the CHIPS Act's signing
Aside from giving time to the companies, NASA commissioned to create commercial space stations, the signing of the CHIPS Act also means that the government will be supporting NASA's crewed forays to the moon and Mars through the Artemis missions.
Frank Slazer, the president and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, said that the signing of the CHIPS Act shows that Congress and the White House acknowledge the importance of space in the US' competitiveness and support for NASA's goals in space.
He also added that such a level of trust would facilitate the necessary environment for America and its international partners to reach Mars in the late 2030s or early 2040s.
