42 U.S.C. § 18352 — Maximum utilization of the International Space Station

(a) In general. Now that the ISS is fully built, NASA must take steps to maximize how productive and useful it is for scientific and technological research, advancing space exploration, and international cooperation. (b) NASA actions. To do this, NASA must, at a minimum, do three things. First, innovative use of the U.S. segment: since the U.S. part of the ISS has been named a National Laboratory, NASA must manage and use it in a way that makes it effective and innovative, as described in section 18354. Second, international cooperation: the ISS must keep serving as a key part of international efforts to build missions and capabilities that extend human presence beyond near-Earth space and advance U.S. security and economic goals, and the Administrator must actively look for ways to support that. Third, domestic collaboration: NASA must run, manage, and use the ISS in a way that lets it work together with other U.S. government research programs, alongside commercial suppliers, users, and developers.