US prepares to deorbit International Space Station amid China competition

Before the International Space Station was launched into orbit in 1998, the U.S. signed a document with several other countries to agree to the peaceful use of the orbital laboratory. The agreement included Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries. China was left out of the plan. 

Nearly a decade later, China expressed interest in joining those on board the space station. The European Space Agency signaled support for the addition, along with South Korea. The final decision was ultimately opposed by the United States. 

“I think you’ll have to understand that Congress gave us very clear direction in 2011,” NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said. “Any bilateral cooperation with China had to be certified as not sharing any information that would give China some kind of an advantage.” 

In 2011, Congress included in a spending bill direction to prohibit collaboration between NASA and China when it comes to some scientific research, including in space. Lawmakers argued China’s program was secretive and too closely tied to its military.

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“I think there’s no question they’re an economic competitor and they’re also a competitor for leadership geopolitically,” Melroy said. 

China began developing its own space station. It launched and deorbited a pair of short-term space labs between 2011 and 2018. It launched the first part of its Tiangong Space Station, which translates to Heavenly Palace, in 2011. 

“We’re laser-focused on China now. China is a threat. We’re in a new space race,” said President of International and Space Stations at Voyager Space Jeffrey Manber.

Voyager is one of three companies contracted by NASA that is working to develop a new space station. Voyager says it is on pace to launch its Starlab in 2028. There are some fears that NASA will face funding cuts. If there are delays for the companies designing the next space stations, NASA will deorbit the space station without a replacement ready to go. 

Melroy insists the agency will not let China be the sole operator of a space station in orbit, but the storyline resonates with that of the space shuttle program. 

The American-made space shuttle was the world’s first reusable aircraft. It launched like a rocket and landed like an airplane. In 2004, then-President George W. Bush announced a new space initiative, which included retiring the shuttle by 2010 and conducting the first manned mission on a new spacecraft no later than 2014. 

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“The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the space station after the shuttle is retired,” Bush said in 2004. 

The government considered several contractors to develop the vehicle under the constellation program. Over the next several years, program delays and funding issues led the Obama administration to eliminate the program from its 2011 budget. 

“Pursuing this new strategy will require that we revise the old strategy. In part, this is because the old strategy, including the Constellation program, was not fulfilling its promise in many ways,” then-President Barack Obama said in April 2010. 

The administration instead directed more than $6 billion to support commercial companies building spacecraft. The shuttle program came to an end a year later. American-made rockets were still not yet available. The U.S. was forced to rely on Russia for continued space travel. 

“It was tough times. I think it was the right decision. The shuttle’s time had come to an end. We needed to make a strategic investment in our own industry to develop the capability to take humans to space,” Melroy said. “There were a lot of people who thought we’d canceled the space program.”

NASA would finally launch an American-made rocket that could carry humans to the space station, nine years after the shuttle’s retirement. It was a delay of six years from Bush’s initial projection. The 2020 SpaceX launch also marked the first of a commercial rocket on U.S. soil. 

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As NASA faces the same prospect once again, officials insist they have a different strategy for competition in space with China. 

“I think it’s different in the sense that we are still the leader. We intend to remain the leader. We intend to remain the partner of choice. We work very well with our international partners, and they want to continue to work with us,” Melroy said. 

Only Chinese Taikonauts have visited the Tiangong Space Station. The country has expressed openness to hosting astronauts from other countries. Beijing has increased cooperation with Sweden, Russia and Italy. In recent months, China’s first International Payload launched on a Chinese commercial rocket. It included Oman’s first satellite, which is equipped with artificial intelligence for urban planning, forestry monitoring and disaster management. 

If China becomes the only permanent presence in space, international partners could be forced to rely on Taikonauts for long-term needs in low Earth orbit. Commercial companies could also be forced to do the same. 

“We do have to be somewhat careful about technology transfer and how do we actually connect with international firms to make sure that we’re not sort of giving away things associated with it,” Arkisys CEO Dave Barnhart said. 

California-based Arkisys is working on a robotic servicing port for companies to use while in orbit. 

“We can provide either the cargo, the supplies, the robotic manipulation capability, the fuel, whatever’s required to support a servicing architecture,” Barnhart said. 

Barnhart added the port could help keep the U.S. competitive in space if a commercial station is not ready to go when the space station is decommissioned. While the port would be robotic and not have humans onboard, it would still give the U.S. a form of permanent presence.

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“We actually hope that we will be a bridge between when the [space station] is decommissioned and when the new commercial space stations are up there,” Barnhart said. “We are autonomous, we can move much faster. We can allow different orbital transfer vehicles to come in, to bring cargo, to bring fuel, to bring new payloads.”