The International Space Station Is Still Working, but Its End Is Now Planned

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — July 22, 2026

The International Space Station is not a relic drifting in orbit out of habit. It is still an active laboratory, still hosting an international crew, still receiving cargo and crew vehicles, and still doing the kind of long-duration human and microgravity research that governments and industry cannot fully replace on Earth. But it is also no longer an open-ended project. NASA’s current plan is to operate the ISS through 2030 and then carry out a controlled deorbit in 2031, not raise it to a higher orbit and keep it going forever (NASA, 2024a; NASA, 2024b).

As of late March 2026, NASA’s station overview listed seven Expedition 74 crew members aboard the ISS, with four docked crew and cargo spacecraft. The station configuration shown by NASA on March 24, 2026, included the SpaceX Crew-12 Dragon, Soyuz MS-28, and two Progress cargo ships. Crew-12, which NASA lists as an active mission, brought Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev to the station in February 2026. They joined the Soyuz MS-28 crew already aboard: NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev (NASA, 2026a; NASA, 2026b; NASA, 2026c).

That is the present-tense ISS: seven people from multiple space agencies living and working in orbit, rotating through science, maintenance, cargo handling, robotics, medical monitoring, and station upkeep. NASA’s recent station updates in early April 2026 described the crew working on robotics, cargo operations, microbiology, human research, spacesuit work, 3D printing, life-support technology, and Earth observations. In other words, the station is still doing exactly what it was built to do: serve as a permanently occupied microgravity laboratory and a testbed for operating humans in space for long periods (NASA, 2026d; NASA, 2026e).

The ISS came out of both Cold War leftovers and post-Cold War cooperation. NASA’s own historical summary says the program moved in two phases. First came the Shuttle-Mir era from 1995 to 1998, when the United States and Russia used the Mir station to build working relationships, test joint operations, and prepare for a larger multinational outpost. Phase 2 began in 1998 with the first ISS elements in orbit. The first module, the Russian-built Zarya control module, launched in November 1998. About two weeks later, the U.S. Unity node was attached in orbit during shuttle mission STS-88. The first long-duration crew, Expedition 1, arrived on November 2, 2000, and the station has had a continuous human presence ever since (NASA, n.d.-a; NASA, 2025a; NASA, 2025b).

The legal and political structure behind the station is as important as the hardware. NASA describes the ISS as a partnership led by five space agencies: NASA for the United States, Roscosmos for Russia, ESA for Europe, JAXA for Japan, and CSA for Canada. NASA also notes that the station has involved 15 countries in total and calls it the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken. That is not exaggeration. The ISS has outlasted multiple presidents, governments, budget fights, wars, and diplomatic crises while continuing to function as a shared orbital outpost (NASA, 2026a; NASA, 2023).

Its assembly was a long, expensive, and technically demanding job. NASA says the station’s initial buildout required 27 space shuttle assembly flights, along with multiple international partner missions, across 13 years and 161 spacewalks during assembly alone. More broadly, NASA’s current station overview says more than 290 people from 26 countries have visited the ISS, and the orbiting complex has now hosted over 25 years of continuous human presence in space (NASA, 2024a; NASA, 2026a).

That history matters because it explains the station’s real purpose. The ISS was never just an engineering monument. NASA’s transition documents and science summaries describe it as a microgravity research platform, a proving ground for long-duration human spaceflight, a place to mature technologies needed for Moon and Mars missions, and a platform for commercial activity in low Earth orbit. NASA says the station’s third decade is about results: scientific discoveries, medical and environmental benefits, crew and cargo services, private astronaut missions, and research that supports Artemis and future Mars planning (NASA, 2022; NASA, 2024a; NASA, 2025c).

The science side is still productive. NASA’s 2024 annual highlights for station research said that year alone involved 14 visiting vehicles, more than 40,000 pounds of cargo delivered, and over 400 investigations. NASA’s 2025 research summary said more than 290 people from 26 countries had visited the station and described ongoing work in biotechnology, medicine, debris-removal technology, satellite servicing, nutrient production, and other fields that benefit both Earth-based industry and future exploration. That is one reason NASA did not shut the station down the moment commercial crew flights became routine. It is still useful (NASA, 2025c; NASA, 2025d).

The future, however, is not indefinite extension. NASA’s current position is that the ISS will not be kept alive simply by pushing it into a higher orbit. NASA says it studied that option, along with disassembly and return to Earth, natural decay, and controlled targeted reentry. The agency concluded that controlled deorbit is the safest and most realistic end-of-life option. The basic reason is blunt: the station’s primary structure has a limited technical life, and the outpost was not designed to be disassembled and brought home piece by piece. It is simply too large, too integrated, and too old for that to make practical sense (NASA, 2024b).

To carry out that end safely, NASA announced in June 2024 that it selected SpaceX to develop and deliver the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle. NASA says that vehicle will provide the capability to deorbit the station in a controlled manner and reduce risk to populated areas on Earth. NASA’s Office of Inspector General said in 2024 that the plan is for a controlled deorbit in 2031, while operations are intended to continue through 2030. In other words, the agency is no longer improvising the station’s ending. It has chosen one (NASA, 2024b; NASA OIG, 2024).

What comes after the ISS is supposed to be a commercial handoff, at least on the U.S. side. NASA says its goal is to become one customer among many in a low Earth orbit marketplace built around commercially owned and operated destinations. The station, in NASA’s words, is being used to help build that future now. The agency points to commercial cargo and crew systems, private astronaut missions, and the development of future commercial stations as part of a transition rather than a hard stop. NASA wants research and technology work in low Earth orbit to continue even after the ISS is gone, while NASA itself focuses more of its government-led human exploration effort on the Moon and Mars (NASA, 2022; NASA, 2024a).

That makes the ISS both a success and a bridge. It has already done the historic work: international cooperation, permanent human presence in space, thousands of experiments, and decades of engineering lessons. Now its job is to keep producing results while teaching governments and private industry how to replace it without losing the capability altogether. The station is still working. But for the first time in its history, its ending is no longer a vague someday. It is part of the official plan.

References

NASA. (n.d.-a). International Space Station. NASA. Retrieved April 6, 2026, from https://www.nasa.gov/reference/international-space-station/

NASA. (2022, January 31). NASA provides updated International Space Station transition plan. https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasa-provides-updated-international-space-station-transition-plan/

NASA. (2023, September 27). International Space Station cooperation. https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-international-cooperation/

NASA. (2024a). FAQs: The International Space Station transition plan. Updated July 18, 2024. https://www.nasa.gov/faqs-the-international-space-station-transition-plan/

NASA. (2024b, June 28). NASA selects International Space Station U.S. Deorbit Vehicle. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-international-space-station-us-deorbit-vehicle/

NASA OIG. (2024, September 26). NASA’s management of risks to sustaining ISS operations through 2030. https://oig.nasa.gov/topics/space-operations/nasas-management-of-risks-to-sustaining-iss-operations-through-2030/

NASA. (2025a, May 20). What is the International Space Station? https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/for-kids-and-students/what-is-the-international-space-station-grades-5-8/

NASA. (2025b, November 21). International Space Station: 25 years. https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/iss25/

NASA. (2025c, February 18). 2024 annual highlights of results from the International Space Station science. https://www.nasa.gov/general/2024-annual-highlights-of-results-from-the-international-space-station-science/

NASA. (2025d, January 16). Out of this world discoveries: Space station research in 2025. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/out-of-this-world-discoveries-space-station-research-in-2025/

NASA. (2026a, March 24). International Space Station overview. https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-overview/

NASA. (2026b, February 19). NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12. https://www.nasa.gov/mission/nasas-spacex-crew-12/

NASA. (2026c, February 14). Dragon hatches open, Crew-12 enters station and joins Expedition 74. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/02/14/dragon-hatches-open-crew-12-enters-station-and-joins-expedition-74/

NASA. (2026d, April 1). Station crew works robotics, research as Artemis II launch preps continue. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/general-blog/2026/04/01/station-crew-works-robotics-research-as-artemis-ii-launch-preps-continue/

NASA. (2026e, April 2). Brain and eye studies, advanced life support tech top station crew’s day. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/04/02/brain-and-eye-studies-advanced-life-support-tech-top-station-crews-day/

NASA. (2026f, January 9). International Space Station visitors by country. https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-visitors-by-country/