ISS Crew--11 mission launches now, but will return when budget allows

Politics & Elections
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Article on Ars Technica: With Trump’s cutbacks, crew heads to ISS unsure of when they’ll come back

Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said the agency’s engineers are working with SpaceX to ensure the Dragon spacecraft can stay in orbit for at least eight months. The current certification limit is seven months, although officials waived the limit for one Dragon mission that lasted longer.

“When we launch, we have a mission duration that’s baseline,” Stich said in a July 10 press conference. “And then we can extend [the] mission in real-time, as needed, as we better understand… the reconciliation bill and the appropriations process and what that means relative to the overall station manifest.”

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Alternate title: NASA Plays Hardball with Trump Administration

Future Headline? "Congress Passes F.U.C.K.D.E.M.A.S.T.R.O.N.A.U.T.S.* Bill

*Federally Unfunding Critical Kapacity DEeMed A STupid Repulsive Offensive National Assault Undermining Trump’s Supremacy

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If I’m reading this correctly “mission launches now, but will return when budget allows” is a clickbait-y thread title. It seems to me that they’re launching with the intent of coming back in 7 months. As they get closer to the end of the mission, if the budget allows, they’ll extend it. The reduced budget won’t go into effect until October of next year.

“When we launch, we have a mission duration that’s baseline,” Stich said in a July 10 press conference. “And then we can extend [the] mission in real-time, as needed, as we better understand… the reconciliation bill and the appropriations process and what that means relative to the overall station manifest.”

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The article implies that it’s the other way around: crew rotations cost more money, so the mission will get lengthier if the budget is tight.