When viewed in the history of spaceflight, the International Space Station is perhaps one of humanity’s most amazing accomplishments, a shining example of cooperation in space among the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia.
In 2030, the International Space Station will be deorbited: driven into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.
Astronauts performing research inside the space station and payload experiments attached to the station’s exterior have generated many publications in peer-reviewed science journals.
In December 2021, NASA announced three awards to help develop privately owned, commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit.
Dawn of commercial space stations In September 2025, NASA issued a draft announcement for Phase 2 partnership proposals for commercial space stations.
The Conversation originally published this article. The article was a contribution to the Expert Voices: Op-Ed and Insights section of Space . com.
Since November 2000, NASA and its international partners have maintained a constant human presence in low-Earth orbit, including at least one American, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This accomplishment will soon mark 25 years.
Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of humankind in spaceflight history, the International Space Station is a beacon of collaboration between the US, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia. However, everything good must end.
The International Space Station is scheduled to be deorbited, or pushed into a remote region of the Pacific Ocean, in 2030.
As an aerospace engineer, I have contributed to the construction of various ISS hardware and experiments. It will be difficult for me to witness the end of the ISS as someone who has been involved in spaceflight for more than 30 years and has been a member of the NASA community for 17 years.
Significant research achievements in a variety of fields, including materials science, biotechnology, astronomy and astrophysics, Earth science, combustion, and more, have taken place aboard the International Space Station since its initial components were launched in 1998.
Numerous publications have been produced in peer-reviewed scientific journals by astronauts conducting research inside the space station and payload experiments connected to the station’s exterior. Some of them have improved our knowledge of thunderstorms, helped make important cancer-fighting medications crystallize better, described how to grow artificial retinas in space, investigated the processing of ultrapure optical fibers, and described how to sequence DNA in orbit.
Over 4,000 experiments have been carried out on board the ISS, leading to over 4,400 research publications devoted to enhancing and expanding life on Earth and paving the way for further space exploration endeavors.
The ISS has demonstrated the importance of studying a wide range of significant physical, chemical, and biological processes in the special environment of spaceflight, which includes extremely low gravity, a vacuum, extreme temperature cycles, and radiation.
maintaining a presence in space.
However, NASA and its international partners are not giving up on their outpost in low-Earth orbit after the station is retired. Rather, they’re searching for ways to extend the ongoing, 25-year human presence about 250 miles (402 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface while still utilizing low Earth orbit’s potential as a unique research laboratory.
NASA announced three grants in December 2021 to support the development of commercially operated, privately owned space stations in low-Earth orbit.
NASA has been using commercial partners to successfully deliver supplies to the ISS for years, and the agency recently started similar business agreements with SpaceX and Boeing for crew transportation aboard the Dragon and Starliner spacecraft, respectively.
Because of the success of these programs, NASA has spent over $400 million to support the development of commercial space stations, with the goal of launching and activating them prior to the decommissioning of the ISS.
Commercial space stations’ debut.
NASA released a draft announcement for Phase 2 partnership proposals for commercial space stations in September 2025. The chosen companies will get funds to support critical design reviews and put four-person stations in orbit for a minimum of 30 days.
In order to make sure that these stations satisfy NASA’s exacting safety standards, NASA will subsequently proceed with formal design acceptance and certification. The result will enable NASA to commercially buy missions and other services on these stations, much like it does now when it transports crew and cargo to the ISS.
It is yet to be determined which of these teams will succeed and when.
Chinese astronauts will continue to live and work on their Tiangong space station, a three-person, permanently crewed facility orbiting about 250 miles (402 km) above the Earth’s surface, while these stations are being constructed. The ISS has been occupied for about four years and counting, so if its occupied streak ends, China and Tiangong will become the longest continuously inhabited space station in operation.
Meanwhile, take in the scenery.
Many years will pass before the ISS is deorbited in 2030, and it will be a while before any of these new commercial space stations orbit the planet at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour).
Thus, while you can, look up and enjoy the scenery. When the ISS passes overhead on most nights, it is a sight to behold: a dazzling blue-white point of light, typically the brightest object in the sky, silently making a beautiful arc across the sky.
It was almost unthinkable for our forefathers that one day the human mind and hands would have created one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
