(i) ISS CARGO
RESUPPLY
SERVICES
LESSONS 
LEARNED.—Not later than 120 days after the date of en-
actment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to the 
appropriate committees of Congress a report that— 
(1) identifies the lessons learned to date from 
previous and existing Commercial Resupply Services 
contracts; 
(2) indicates whether changes are needed to the 
manner in which the Administration procures and 
manages similar services prior to the issuance of fu-
ture Commercial Resupply Services procurement op-
portunities; and 
(3) identifies any lessons learned from the Com-
mercial Resupply Services contracts that should be 
applied to the procurement and management of com-
mercially provided crew transfer services to and 
from the ISS or to other future procurements. 
SEC. 303. ISS TRANSITION PLAN. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 
(1) NASA has been both the primary supplier 
and consumer of human space flight capabilities and 
services of the ISS and in low-Earth orbit; and 
(2) according to the National Research Council 
report ‘‘Pathways to Exploration: Rationales and 
Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human Space 
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Exploration’’ extending ISS beyond 2020 to 2024 or 
2028 will have significant negative impacts on the 
schedule of crewed missions to Mars, without signifi-
cant increases in funding. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that— 
(1) an orderly transition for United States 
human space flight activities in low-Earth orbit from 
the current regime, that relies heavily on NASA 
sponsorship, to a regime where NASA is one of 
many customers of a low-Earth orbit commercial 
human space flight enterprise may be necessary; and 
(2) decisions about the long-term future of the 
ISS impact the ability to conduct future deep space 
exploration activities, and that such decisions re-
garding the ISS should be considered in the context 
of the human exploration roadmap under section 
432 of this Act. 
(c) REPORTS.—Section 50111 of title 51, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(c) ISS TRANSITION PLAN.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator, in co-
ordination with the ISS management entity (as de-
fined in section 2 of the National Aeronautics and 
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Space Administration Transition Authorization Act 
of 2016), ISS partners, the scientific user commu-
nity, and the commercial space sector, shall develop 
a plan to transition in a step-wise approach from the 
current regime that relies heavily on NASA sponsor-
ship to a regime where NASA could be one of many 
customers of a low-Earth orbit non-governmental 
human space flight enterprise. 
‘‘(2) REPORTS.—Not later than December 1, 
2017, and biennially thereafter until 2023, the Ad-
ministrator shall submit to the Committee on Com-
merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 
and the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-
nology of the House of Representatives a report that 
includes— 
‘‘(A) a description of the progress in 
achieving the Administration’s deep space 
human exploration objectives on ISS and pros-
pects for accomplishing future mission require-
ments, space exploration objectives, and other 
research objectives on future commercially sup-
plied low-Earth orbit platforms or migration of 
those objectives to cis-lunar space; 
‘‘(B) steps NASA is taking and will take, 
including demonstrations that could be con-
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ducted on the ISS, to stimulate and facilitate 
commercial demand and supply of products and 
services in low-Earth orbit; 
‘‘(C) an identification of barriers pre-
venting the commercialization of low-Earth 
orbit, including issues relating to policy, regula-
tions, commercial intellectual property, data, 
and confidentiality, that could inhibit the use of 
the ISS as a commercial incubator; 
‘‘(D) the criteria for defining the ISS as a 
research success; 
‘‘(E) the criteria used to determine wheth-
er the ISS is meeting the objective under sec-
tion 301(b)(2) of the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration Transition Authorization 
Act of 2016; 
‘‘(F) an assessment of whether the criteria 
under subparagraphs (D) and (E) are con-
sistent with the research areas defined in, and 
recommendations and schedules under, the cur-
rent National Academies of Sciences, Engineer-
ing, and Medicine Decadal Survey on Biological 
and Physical Sciences in Space; 
‘‘(G) any necessary contributions that ISS 
extension would make to enabling execution of 
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the human exploration roadmap under section 
432 of the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-
ministration Transition Authorization Act of 
2016; 
‘‘(H) the cost estimates for operating the 
ISS to achieve the criteria required under sub-
paragraphs (D) and (E) and the contributions 
identified under subparagraph (G); 
‘‘(I) the cost estimates for extending oper-
ations of the ISS to 2024, 2028, and 2030; 
‘‘(J) an evaluation of the feasible and pre-
ferred service life of the ISS beyond the period 
described in section 503 of the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration Authorization 
Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 18353), through at 
least 2028, as a unique scientific, commercial, 
and space exploration-related facility, includ-
ing— 
‘‘(i) a general discussion of inter-
national partner capabilities and prospects 
for extending the partnership; 
‘‘(ii) the cost associated with extend-
ing the service life; 
‘‘(iii) an assessment on the technical 
limiting factors of the service life of the 
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