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The International Space Station (ISS) was first launched in 1998, but it took a number of years and multiple launches to get all the pieces in place. The station currently houses a crew of six, and will proceed to do so for a few more than years. The ISS volition be retired onetime in the 2022s, maybe as late as 2028. What should nosotros practice with it then? The plan is to de-orbit it over the ocean and allow information technology burn up, but a private infinite house called Axiom is proposing cannibalizing the ISS to reuse some of those parts when the time comes.

Nosotros've talked about Axiom in the past — it seems like 1 of the almost feasible individual space station projects, in part because its CEO is Michael Suffredini, the sometime NASA program manager of the ISS. When last we heard from Axiom, it was beginning discussions with NASA to send a new module upwardly to the ISS. The creatively named Module 1 would be the first sizable expansion of the ISS's pressurized space in years. The design includes living space for every bit many every bit seven additional astronauts. Module ane would dock to the mating adapter installed for the Commercial Crew Programme, but information technology would have a duplicate adapter on board for capsules from SpaceX and Boeing to dock.

The plan NASA and Axiom are currently investigating would see Axiom'southward module spend several years docked to the ISS to become it up and running (come across beneath). One benefit cited is that Module 1 could be very useful while information technology's docked to the ISS. It volition have a more efficient blueprint that requires fewer spacewalks, and the computers will be much more avant-garde than the erstwhile ones on the ISS. When the ISS is retired, Module 1 could detach and be linked up with other modules send up by Axiom.

20161230_axiom-core-attached-iss

The new twist is the proposal from Axiom'due south vice-president of strategic development that Axiom could take some bits of the ISS with them when Module one goes its own way. The company is peculiarly interested in a storage module, the Canadarm2 (a robotic arm outside the station pictured at the top), and the cupola module (the one with the canopy window pointed at Earth).

Precept stresses this plan is not officially on the tablet however. NASA has yet to agree to the ambitious Module one docking plan in the first place. A feasibility study is currently underway, and Axiom expects it to be complete in the next few months. At that signal, it might exist time to start asking for hand-me-down parts from the ISS.