THE International Space Station is poised to receive a new lease of life, after international partners agreed in principle to keep the $100 billion outpost going until at least 2020.
The ISS was originally set for decommissioning in 2015, but industry officials have assured policy-makers that it is structurally fit to last the additional years.
The extension would be good news for researchers hoping to take advantage of the space station’s microgravity environment. Possible future research includes an experiment due to begin in a few months into gravity’s effect on biofuels, and a device yet-to-be-launched called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer…
