The ISS project was set to end in 2030. In 2024, NASA awarded a contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX to build a tug to de-orbit the outpost by 2030, assuming it lasts that long. By then the complex's first module will have been in orbit for more than 30 years, and cracks have plagued the structure alongside hardware failures as the laboratory ages.
Veteran NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned from his 220-day mission on board the International Space Station in April 2025, the day of his 70th birthday, making him the oldest active astronaut on the space agency's roster. During his seven-month stint on board the aging orbital outpost, his fourth trip to space, Pettit took the time to photograph some dazzling views of the Earth below.
Earlier this week, the Sun unleashed a powerful X-class solar flare, a major burst of electromagnetically charged particles that lit up the Earth's night sky as they entered our planet's atmosphere. The effect was stunning: a dazzling display of auroras reaching as far as southern California. Forecasters that it was one of the largest solar storms in decades, making for a particularly unique opportunity to watch the show unfold.
Two Americans, a Japanese astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Thursday after 167 days in orbit, cutting short their stay on the International Space Station by more than a month after one of the crew members encountered an unspecified medical issue last week. The early homecoming culminated in an on-target splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 3:41 am EST (08:41 UTC) inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Four astronauts are about to make an abrupt exit from the International Space Station amid a health concern - and their unprecedented early departure will leave behind a bare-bones staff to look after the outpost. When the crew boards the SpaceX capsule that will bring them home, only three people will remain on the orbiting laboratory: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of Russia and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
In the 25 years since the first permanent crew docked at the International Space Station, fewer than 300 people have experienced what life is like there, 250 miles above Earth. The rest of us can only imagine it. So, for NASA astronauts like Don Pettit, taking photographs of our planet while aboard the ISS is a way to share the experience with people on the ground.
The International Space Station is slated to be retired just four years from now. In fact, "retired" confers an aura of decorum that may not be warranted; the plan is to nudge it out of its orbit with the help of a modified SpaceX spacecraft until it unceremoniously plunges into the Pacific Ocean, after facilitating decades of cutting-edge space science.
In a statement, NASA revealed that it agreed to modify Boeing's existing 2014 Commercial Crew contract to have Starliner carry cargo only for its first operational flight, Starliner-1, which is tentatively scheduled for "no earlier than April 2026." "Following Starliner certification, and a successful Starliner-1 mission, Starliner will fly up to three crew rotations to the International Space Station," NASA's statement reads.
While a miss this close might sound alarming, the European Space Agency (ESA) claims there was never any serious danger. Based on its estimated size, 2025 TF would have most likely burned up or exploded in the atmosphere rather than slamming into the surface. ESA said in a statement: 'Objects of this size pose no significant danger. 'They can produce fireballs if they strike Earth's atmosphere, and may result in the discovery of small meteorites on the ground.'
If you want the best view of Earth's landmarks, you'll need a ticket to space. Some of the world's most jaw-dropping sites - both natural and man-made - only reveal their true scale and beauty when captured from 250 miles overhead. The International Space Station has snapped images of some of these landmarks, such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Pyramids at Giza, and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Photos show how incredible landmarks look both from the ground and from way, way above.
Icarus Robotics cofounders Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer spent hours interviewing astronauts about what it was like working in space as they homed in on their startup idea. Their big takeaway: the work was often more cargo logistics than cutting-edge science. "We're Amazon warehouse workers with PhDs," one astronaut said. If an experiment takes two hours on station, the person continued, the first ninety minutes are spent just moving around cargo and preparing tools.
Ask any astronaut who has spent extended periods in the International Space Station what the most challenging part was, and they will probably say missing friends and family. While there are plenty of amazing and unique experiences, life in space comes with other little challenges, too - try getting your hair to stay flat without gravity or wearing the same outfit for days on end.
An experiment conducted on board the International Space Station might help to clarify the science of pregnancy in space. A study published earlier this month in the journal Stem Cell Reports involved studying what the authors describe as "cryopreserved mouse spermatogonial stem cells" that spent six months on the ISS. The scientists studying the mouse stem cells found that, after six months, that time spent in space "did not increase apoptosis or DNA damage" in the cells.
