Article Posted on : - Oct 19, 2011

International Space Station (ISS)

MOSCOW (BNS): The Space Station Program Control Board (SSPCB) may extend the service life of International Space Station (ISS) by 2028, a media report said.

Partners of the programme have agreed to extend the service of the station by 2020 as earlier the station was schedule to be de-orbited by 2015.

"At present, experts have been instructed to find ways to extend the station's service life until 2028," RIA Novosti quoted Alexei Krasnov, the head of Roscosmos manned spaceflight programmes, as saying at Space Forum 2011.

The orbital station could be used as an assembly line and a launch pad for experimental spacecraft, including small satellites, he said.

NASA earlier called the ISS, an anchor for the future of human space exploration and a major component of the US human space programme, it said.