NASA Will Bid Farewell To The ISS Soon And Welcome Commercial Space Stations

For nearly a quarter of a century, humanity has maintained an unbroken presence in space. Since November 2000, astronauts from NASA and its international partners have lived and worked aboard the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting Earth 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The ISS stands as a symbol of global cooperation in space, a shared endeavor among the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia. Yet, even the greatest engineering marvels must eventually retire. In 2030, NASA plans to deorbit the International Space Station, guiding it into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, marking the end of a remarkable chapter in orbital research and collaboration, according to Space.

Since its first modules launched in 1998, the ISS has been a powerhouse of scientific discovery. More than 4,000 experiments conducted aboard have produced over 4,400 peer-reviewed publications, covering fields from materials science, biotechnology, and astronomy to Earth observation, combustion, and astrophysics. The station has hosted groundbreaking research from studying thunderstorms and microgravity effects on living tissues to improving cancer-fighting drug crystallization, developing artificial retinas, refining optical fiber production, and even sequencing DNA in orbit.

These achievements have proven the unique value of space as a microgravity laboratory. The ISS’s exposure to vacuum, radiation, and extreme temperature cycles allows scientists to explore physical, chemical, and biological processes that cannot be replicated on Earth.

But NASA is not abandoning low-Earth orbit. Instead, it’s preparing for a new chapter: the rise of commercial space stations. In 2021, the agency awarded over $400 million to private companies to develop privately owned, commercially operated orbital platforms that could replace the ISS. Building on the success of partnerships with SpaceX and Boeing, which already handle cargo and crew transport, NASA plans to purchase research services from these private outposts instead of operating its own.

In 2025, NASA initiated “Phase 2” of this effort, inviting proposals for new space station partnerships. Selected companies will design and demonstrate stations capable of supporting four-person crews for at least 30 days. Once certified, these habitats will continue humanity’s low-Earth orbit operations, ensuring continuous scientific work long after the ISS’s decommissioning.

Meanwhile, China’s Tiangong Space Station, a three-person orbital complex continues to grow in importance. Having been occupied for about four years, Tiangong could soon become the world’s longest-inhabited space station after 2030, further demonstrating China’s ambitions in space exploration and orbital research.

For now, the ISS remains a beacon of human ingenuity and international collaboration. Traveling at 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h) and orbiting 250 miles (402 km) above Earth, it often appears as a brilliant, steady light streaking across the night sky.