It is still unclear how this decision was relayed to the United States. NASA did not respond immediately to The Verge’s request for comment, but senior NASA officials at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) in Washington, DC, on Tuesday morning told reporters that the decision had not been formally communicated to the space agency and that the plan is to keep the ISS operational until 2030. During the conference, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren said that they had just learned of the tragedy this morning from news sources.
