If it were Bush or Obama, their retort would be they already
have plans to have the space station replaced by 2050.
Smile...
Well, the Chinese will have no problem with installing “Rods from God”.
I believe that the US is, via private rockets, on track to go back to the moon by 2024, and stay.
It appears to me anyway that a moon base might be more difficult to setup but more cost efficient in the long run.
There are more effective ways to do science in LEO than maintaining a multi-billion dollar space station. The USA is most certainly not going to do that alone.
Good thing we now have a Space Force!
There’s commercial plans for the ISS to get an attached ‘space hotel/research’ station that’ll be separated. I’m unsure if they can do it before the ISS goes away, but they are just now launching the docking platform on a Falcon 9.
I just hope we get the Lunar Gateway and to Mars by the mid 2030’s, think NASAs better for the moon, SpaceX for Mars.
Why shouldn’t the Chinese build a space station …..
After all they stole all technology from us and the Russkies
Oh we’ve got plenty of presence up there in black programs.
This is just the public consumption presence that nasa provides.
Get SpaceX to help. They’ll build a new low-orbit space station and launch it within six months. Meanwhile, they’ll attach their rocket to the existing ISS and move it into an orbit around Mars, where it will be waiting for SpaceX crews in a few years. NASA can’t do anything by itself anymore. Let the private companies get it done.