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The International Space Station, Oct. 4, 2018.
Photo:
HANDOUT/REUTERS
The International Space Station is a major achievement. It was created in the same pioneering spirit that led the U.S. to land a man on the moon, in President Kennedy’s words, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. When President Reagan directed the creation of a space station in his 1984 State of the Union address, he invited allied countries to join the U.S. in developing “our next frontier.” The station and that spirit of higher purpose could be under threat from turmoil in domestic and international politics, but we can prevail.
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, is threatening to leave the ISS before the station retires in 2030. If nothing is done, this could cripple the ISS. Russia supplies the propulsion-control elements of the station. Despite Moscow’s threats, channels of communication remain open and Russia is still working with the ISS.
If Roscosmos leaves for good, there is a potential solution in the station’s longstanding relationship with the commercial space industry. The earliest private vehicles relied heavily on docking at the ISS. That successful private-public partnership has evolved as the industry has and could help cover Roscosmos’s duties on the ISS if Russia leaves. Northrup-Grumman’s Cygnus cargo vehicle could provide reboost in lieu of Roscosmos’s cooperation, and SpaceX is evaluating if it could use its Dragon Cargo modules to do the same. And when the station retires, private space companies will also become crucial to our activities in low Earth orbit and other space ventures. Both of these ventures will take time as well as authorizations and funding from Washington.
Congress must not be hampered by the sort of partisan infighting that mars so much of our political discourse. The ISS is too important to lose. Research conducted on board has advanced treatment of cancer and other diseases. Angiex Inc. used microgravity conditions on the ISS to develop a treatment targeting the blood supply of cancerous tumor cells by depriving them of oxygen and nutrients. Other studies have optimized the delivery of treatments for melanoma and lung cancer by producing new versions of the drug Keytruda that can be injected, rather than given intravenously over many hours at greater cost.
The ISS is also home to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a unique instrument searching for evidence of dark matter in deep space. Physicists theorize that 95% of the universe is dark matter and the principal investigator of AMS, Nobel Prize winner
Samuel Ting,
has said that identifying and studying this mysterious substance is already revolutionizing our understanding of astrophysics and the composition of the universe.
Our politics have become so toxic that it can be easy to forget how presidents from both parties helped unite the country around ambitious scientific projects. Space exploration and research have challenged us to work together and look beyond petty partisanship and passing foreign policy challenges. Attribute our successes in this arena to the long-term visions of Presidents Reagan and Kennedy. It’s essential to continue and expand these efforts with an emphasis on international cooperation.
Ms. Hutchison, a Republican, served as a U.S. senator from Texas (1993-2013) and U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2017-21). Ms. Harman, a Democrat, served as a U.S. representative from California (1993-99 and 2001-11) and is president emerita of the Wilson Center. Both are members of the NASA Advisory Council.
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Appeared in the August 17, 2022, print edition.
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