Canada's pledge to participate in the International Space Station for four more years, to 2024, is a welcome development that hopefully will encourage Europe and Japan to follow suit. With its April 21 announcement, Canada becomes the first of the original space station partners to join the United States in committing to an extended mission. Russia, a relative latecomer but an indispensable station partner, said in February that it would stick around for four more years. That leaves the European and Japanese space agencies, both charter members of the partnership, as the holdouts. Neither seems in a hurry to commit - the cash-strapped Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is seeking to reduce the cost of its participation, while the European Space Agency, which has financial issues of its own, must negotiate the different agendas of its participating members.
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