Americans may be absent from space after November 2019

The two companies that have a contract with NASA to transport its astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), Boeing and SpaceX, will not respect their schedule, which provided for a first trip in 2019, according to a government audit report .

Therefore, NASA may no longer have a way to send astronauts into space from November 2019, when will be the last US astronauts return trip from the ISS to Earth via Russian Soyuz

NASA stopped its space shuttles in 2011, and has since been resting on Russian rockets to take its astronauts to the ISS. In 2014, it awarded Boeing and SpaceX the task of developing new launch systems to take over in 2019. Currently, there are three Americans, one German and two Russians aboard the ISS, where they usually stay. five or six months.

But the Independent Federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed in a report released Wednesday that the two companies were late.

Boeing should only be certified in December 2019, at place of January. For SpaceX, in January 2020 instead of February 2019.

Consequence: Nasa may no longer have a transport solution after the expiry of the contract with the Russian Soyuz in November 2019.

" NASA is exploring various potential options, but it does not have a contingency plan to avoid an interruption "pinpoints the GAO.

The risk could even be nine months without an American in space, continue the GAO auditors, because it is possible that the two American companies are not ready until August 2020, according to an internal badysis of NASA.

But American policy provides for a continuous presence in space.

Solutions exist but are uncertain. It seems unlikely that NASA could buy additional seats in the Soyuz, as the manufacturing and control process is usually three years, which would delay to 2021.

Another solution would be to travel astronauts during tests that companies will theoretically conduct next year, which would pose a greater security risk. The GAO also points out that NASA has not adopted a single method for badessing the risk of crew loss – the risk of fatal accidents to astronauts.