“We are in the era of people interested in having good deals, and LISA is a very good deal for the US.”
It’s no surprise that NASA’s new tack toward foreign partnerships—good deals only, please—is challenging preconceived notions of international cooperation in space. Without a massive budget hike, the US space agency’s emphasis on building a Moon Base and winning a competition for lunar real estate and resources with China will inevitably leave lesser priorities behind. Gone is the Lunar Gateway, a space station that was to be assembled in orbit around the Moon.
NASA canceled the Mars Sample Return mission after its budget ballooned beyond $10 billion. Going forward, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said NASA’s international partners must be ready to make “meaningful contributions,” with greater urgency than before.
Here’s another one. Scientists are in the early stages of developing the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, the world’s first space-based observatory for detecting and studying gravitational waves. As currently envisioned, the LISA mission will be led by the European Space Agency, with significant contributions from the United States. Launch is scheduled for around 2035.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing