World News for Students of English

12-06-2019 15:00

The International Space Station has been always closed to the public, and NASA previously was strongly against allowing tourists and commercial interest on the ISS. Commercial activity so far has been limited to science experiments.

However, the agency’s chief financial officer told reporters that commercialising the station will enable NASA ‘to focus resources’ to land the next man and the first woman on the moon by 2024. NASA now has declared parts of the ISS open for business – it will let private astronauts visit and stay as early as next year, will allow in-space manufacturing, health care research and even marketing.

Also, back in May, the Trump administration said that it would ask Congress to add $1.6 billion to NASA’s budget next year to help finance NASA’s plans to send astronauts back to the moon.

Difficult words: chief financial officer (the boss of the finances in a company), declare (officially say that something is now true), budget (finances, money, financial plan).

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