EU mulls opening ISS to more countries

European Space Agency officials say non-participating countries will be able to place experiments on the orbital complex in a trial that could provide a fresh revenue source for the project, SPACE.com reported Wednesday.

The proposal disclosed by ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain has been approved by the ESA governments financing the space station program and by NASA and the other station partners, ESA officials said.

Opening the station to non-participating nations would allow the ESA to reposition the space station as a springboard and testing ground for future space exploration efforts, Dordain said.

Several nations taking part in the "Second International Conference on Space Exploration" in Brussels, Belgium, say they support a NASA proposal for extending the station's life at least until 2020.

Other station partners, among them Canada, Russia and Japan, have accepted the proposal, but some European partners are still weighing their options.

The ESA still expects to win its member states' formal support for the station extension in December, said Simonetta di Pippo, ESA's director of human spaceflight.

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