NASA CEO Bill Nelson announces that the US government wants to use the International Space Station until 2030. Still, other international partners have yet to follow.

“We are proud that the US government is willing to push through to 2030,” Nelson said in a press release. “For more than twenty years there has been peaceful international scientific cooperation on the ISS. Scientific, educational and technological advancements are helping humanity move forward.”

The space station was gradually expanded in 1998 and has a total length of 73 meters in 2022. In total there is 931.5 cubic meters of space on board, which is comparable to two detached houses. In 21 years, more than 3,000 scientific studies have been conducted aboard the space station. 4,200 scientists in nearly 110 countries participated in this.

What are the Russians doing?

The European and Japanese space organizations previously indicated that they would continue until 2030. The big wait is now on Russia. The Russian space agency Roskosmos wants to work together until 2025, after which it may launch its own space station. On the other hand, Russia has recently added two new modules (nauka and Prichal) installed. Perhaps the Russians want to continue beyond 2025. There are currently some international tensions between Russia and the United States, but that has happened more often in the past and that has never had major consequences for the ISS.

What comes after the ISS?

The big advantage of this extension from 2024 to 2030 is that in the coming decade it is possible to work towards a transition to one or more commercial space stations. For example, Blue Origin – Jeff Bezos’ space company – build a commercial space station. The Orbital Reef space station is expected to become operational between 2025 and 2030. This overlaps nicely with the ISS. Bezos received $130 million from NASA in December to create a space station or other commercial destination in space. Northrop Grumman and Nanoracks also received over $100 million.

This is what Blue Origin’s commercial space station may look like in the future.

Beautiful pictures of the ISS

Late last year, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet captured beautiful photos of the International Space Station. The photos clearly show how large the space station is now. It’s rare for the ISS to be photographed so close, as the space station hovers 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.