The End in Orbit: NASA Plans to Deorbit the ISS in 2030 After 25 Years of Continuous Presence
For 24 hours a day, seven days a week since November 2000, NASA and its international partners have sustained a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station. In 2030, the ISS will be deorbited — driven into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. This marks the end of a remarkable era of collaboration among the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia. As an aerospace engineer who helped build ISS hardware, an industry voice notes: "it will be hard to see the ISS come to an end."
In This Article:
A Luminous Lab: The ISS’s Science Engineered a Global Knowledge Boom
Since the first pieces of the International Space Station were launched in 1998, the station has hosted significant research across materials science, biotechnology, astronomy and astrophysics, Earth science, combustion, and more. Astronauts performing research inside the station and payload experiments attached to the exterior have generated many publications in peer‑reviewed journals. In total, more than 4,000 experiments have been conducted aboard the ISS, resulting in more than 4,400 research publications dedicated to advancing life on Earth and guiding future exploration. Examples include studies that shed light on thunderstorms, improvements in crystallization processes for cancer‑fighting drugs, growing artificial retinas in space, processing ultrapure optical fibers, and sequencing DNA in orbit. The ISS demonstrates the value of conducting research in the unique environment of spaceflight—microgravity, a vacuum, extreme temperature cycles and radiation—to advance understanding of a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological processes.
From Outpost to Opportunity: The Path Beyond ISS to Private Stations and Tiangong
In December 2021, NASA announced three awards to help develop privately owned, commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit. For years, NASA has successfully sent supplies to the International Space Station using commercial partners, and the agency recently began similar arrangements with SpaceX and Boeing for transporting crew aboard the Dragon and Starliner spacecraft. Based on the success of these programs, NASA invested more than US$400 million to stimulate the development of commercial space stations and hopefully launch and activate them before the ISS is decommissioned. In September 2025, NASA issued a draft Phase 2 announcement for partnership proposals; companies selected will receive funding to support critical design reviews and demonstrate stations with four people in orbit for at least 30 days. NASA will then move forward with formal design acceptance and certification to ensure these stations meet NASA’s safety requirements. The outcome will allow NASA to purchase missions and other services aboard these stations on a commercial basis—similar to how NASA currently contracts for cargo and crew deliveries to the ISS.
A New Horizon in Orbit: Tiangong, Private Labs, and What Comes Next
Meanwhile, China’s Tiangong space station continues to host a three-person crew in orbit at roughly 250 miles (402 kilometers) above Earth. If the ISS’s occupied streak ends, Tiangong could become the longest continually inhabited space station in operation, having been occupied for about four years and counting. It will take years before fully developed commercial stations orbit Earth at roughly 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) and before the ISS is deorbited in 2030. Look up at night and savor the view: the night sky still offers a living chronicle of human ingenuity and collaboration, a symbol of what we can achieve together. "Our ancestors could hardly have imagined that one day, one of the brightest objects in the night sky would have been conceived by the human mind and built by human hands," says John M. Horack, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University.
