Have a theological question?
Visit Got Questions →Space Science
The International Space Station: 25 Years On
26 December 2025
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large, permanently inhabited research laboratory that orbits Earth in low Earth orbit and serves as a hub for international human spaceflight and microgravity science. The ISS is a modular space station assembled from many interconnected components launched over multiple missions, forming the largest humanmade structure in space.
It orbits Earth at an altitude of about 400 kilometers, circling the planet roughly once every 90 minutes and completing about 16 orbits per day. The station is a collaboration among five main space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada).
Up to about seven crew members from different countries typically live and work on board, making it a continuous international outpost in space since 2000. The ISS functions primarily as a microgravity laboratory where experiments in biology, physics, materials science, Earth observation, astronomy, and human physiology are carried out.
It also serves as a testbed for space technologies and lifesupport systems needed for future longduration missions to the Moon and Mars, helping researchers understand the effects of longterm spaceflight on the human body. The ISS is officially planned to operate only through about 2030, after which partner agencies intend to deorbit it in a controlled reentry over a remote stretch of ocean.
NASA has already framed the 2020s as the station’s final decade of results, emphasizing intensive use while it is still structurally and economically viable. Orbital Reef, led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space with partners including Boeing and Arizona State University, is pitched as a mixeduse space business park for research, industry, and tourism in low Earth orbit.
Its payload interfaces are designed to be backwardcompatible with ISS standards, allowing existing ISS experiment hardware to migrate to the new platform and preserving continuity of microgravity research. The ISS National Lab and partner agencies are explicitly trying to build a sustainable low Earth orbit economy, using current ISS access to mature spacebased business models and prepare for a postISS research ecosystem.
By 25 years from now, this trajectory points toward multiple commercially operated labs and industrial modules—pharmaceuticals, materials, biotech—serving government, academic, and private customers rather than a single monolithic station. In parallel, agencies plan outposts beyond LEO, such as the lunar Gateway, to support Artemisclass missions; these cislunar platforms will complement, not replace, loworbit stations as hubs for deepspace exploration.
The combined effect is a shift from one governmentrun ISS to a distributed architecture of commercial LEO stations plus lunarorbit infrastructure, maintaining continuous human presence in space well past the ISS era. The International Space Station (ISS) is humanity's most expensive object and has been in orbit for 25 years.
Read its fascinating history, told in 25 numbers: https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cvenzmgygy8t References Davis, J. (2024). The International Space Station, Humanity’s Shared Orbital Laboratory. The Planetary Society. (2025, December 24). International Space Station.
In Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station (2022). Station Benefits for Humanity. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-research-and-technology/benefits-for-humanity/ (2021, December 2). NASA Selects Companies to Develop Commercial Destinations in Space.
About Coram Deo
Coram Deo — before the face of God. This blog reflects on Scripture, world events, science, music, psychology, and the human mind — always through the lens of Christian faith. All of life is lived before the face of God.