Let’s learn about the International Space Station
This remote laboratory has continuously hosted astronauts since 2000 — but its life is coming to an end
Running the International Space Station is a team effort by space agencies around the world — including those in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia.
NASA/Handout/Getty Images News
The International Space Station, or ISS, is one of humanity’s most remote outposts.
Space agencies around the world teamed up in the 1980s and 1990s to construct this distant laboratory. Pieces of the station were built in different countries and launched into orbit around Earth. Some 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the surface, astronauts and robots put those pieces together like a giant Lego set. Today, running the ISS is a team effort by the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia. China’s Tiangong space station, completed in 2022, orbits Earth at about the same altitude.
Astronauts aboard the ISS have about as much living and working space as you would find in a large house. There are six sleeping areas, two bathrooms and a gym. There are also multiple spaces for conducting scientific research. But the whole station is much bigger than that. It is winged by huge solar panels that power the station. End to end, the ISS is about as long as an American football field.
Since the year 2000, the ISS has hosted nearly 300 people. In this weightless setting, astronauts have run a wide variety of experiments. They have tested how various materials, plants, animals and microbes behave in space. Astronauts have also served as experiments themselves. Scientists have studied their bodies to discover how life in space affects people’s bones, brains, DNA and more. That research could inform future long-term space missions to the moon or other planets.
But the decades-old ISS is reaching the end of its lifespan. It is expected to continue operating until around 2030. At that time, another spacecraft will bring it safely out of orbit, burning up and breaking apart in the atmosphere over the ocean. Afterward, other space stations owned by private companies may serve some of the same roles as the current ISS.
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Activities
Want to see the International Space Station for yourself? Easy! The space station is the third brightest object in the night sky. You just need to know when to look up — which you can find out using NASA’s Spot the Station app or website.
