Twenty-five years ago, in November 2000, Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergey Krikalev became the first astronauts to travel to the International Space Station (ISS). According to statistics, the ISS has never been empty since then! People from many countries in the world have always been there for work. The ISS was the center of a giant revolution in the practice of space science. The space station is a joint effort of 15 countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan, and Canada.
It is only 410 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. The station wasn’t placed into space merely by sending spacecraft a few times or constructing it entirely from scratch; instead, 42 missions were required to repeatedly assemble the station. More than 280 astronauts from over 23 countries have visited the station in the past 25 years. They have worked for their country’s space agency and done many experiments for researchers from more than 100 countries all over the world.
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They have done many different things, such as researching physics and space science, looking for life in space, making medicines, growing crops, and more. At an altitude of 410 kilometers above the Earth, the force of gravity is still about 90 percent as strong as it is on the surface. So the question is, how do astronauts float? The astronauts and their spacecraft are perpetually descending towards the Earth while simultaneously traveling at a high velocity of around 27,600 km/h laterally.
In the equilibrium of these two speeds, they do not descend to the Earth but rather orbit . This phenomenon is referred to as free fall. For example, when someone goes down in an elevator with other people, their bodies seem weightless. It looks like the astronauts are floating in a way that makes it seem like they are weightless. It may seem like there is no gravity, but they are truly in it; they just don’t feel it. That’s why physicists say ‘microgravity’ instead of ‘zero gravity,’ which means a tiny amount of gravity. However, the life of this space station is almost over.
It will remain in operation until 2030 and will be retired the following year. Now, following the announcement of its retirement, many political tensions have emerged. So far, the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft have been working to keep the ISS in orbit. After the war in Ukraine, relations between Russia and the West deteriorated. Russia threatened to stop the support. After this threat, NASA quickly prepared SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus to help keep the ISS running. Fortunately, they succeeded in doing so. Regardless of the tensions between the United States and Russia, the ISS must be decommissioned by 2031.
Like Skylab or Mir Station, it will be burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Its last address will be in a secluded place in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The place is called Point Nemo. It is the most secluded place in the world. Its nearest island is also about 2,700 kilometers away! There will be no harm to people. So, the most important question is: would the ISS’s departure mean the end of the longest-running space experiment in human history? Don’t worry! People keep looking at space, and China’s Tiangong space station is already fully operational! But it’s not that big; it’s around one-third the size of the ISS.
Russia is also preparing to launch its own space station (ROSS), driven by the desire to explore space independently. We’re not just watching this cosmic evolution from the sidelines. ISRO has boldly said that they are getting ready to launch India’s own space station, the “Bharatiya Antariksh Station” (BAS), by 2035! By 2028, the first module will be ready to launch into space, making it possible for us to take people to the Moon by 2040. Is NASA going to build another space station on its own? NASA is currently shifting its budget strategy to private partnerships rather than building single-agency hardware.
Instead of building an ISS replacement alone, NASA is partnering with commercial companies to build stations like Axiom Station, Starlab, and Orbital Reef. NASA is also planning to establish a permanent human settlement on the Moon. For this, a new Gateway station will be built in lunar orbit first. Then a permanent base will be built on the lunar soil, where scientists will go and do various studies. The Artemis program has been launched to live on the Moon. Its first mission, Artemis 1, was a success, and Artemis 2 successfully carried four astronauts around the Moon. The Artemis 3 mission is scheduled to test docking systems in Earth orbit, paving the way for Artemis 4 to land humans back on the Moon. So, humans will always be in space.
(THE AUTHOR IS A RESEARCHER AND FREELANCE SCIENCE WRITER)
