"Last month, Paul Martin, nasa’s inspector general, told the Senate that he doesn’t think there’s a “sufficient business case” for commercial companies to take on the significant cost of managing the ISS, which requires between $3 billion and $4 billion a year. On top of that, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s even interested. “Candidly, the scant commercial interest shown in the station over its nearly 20 years of operation gives us pause about the agency’s current plans,” Martin said. He added that off-loading ISS operations likely wouldn’t save nasa as much money as the feds think, since the government would probably still have to pay for transporting astronauts and cargo to the station, which costs tens of millions of dollars a trip."
"Forczyk worked for several years for the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, a government-funded research organization that supports, among other things, commercial spaceflight efforts. “I can tell you firsthand how difficult it was to secure commercial interest in using ISS unless there was a grant ... even with a ‘free rocket ride,’ paid by nasa,” she says. “It’s all very expensive, and only the largest companies could afford to invest their own funds and were willing to take on the inherent risks.”
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