NASA
In its 25 years in orbit, the International Space Station has given us a quarter of a century’s worth of groundbreaking insights into space and our solar system.
And though it is set to be deorbited and eventually plunge into the South Pacific Ocean in five years’ time, the ISS is not about to stop making history yet.
In December 2025, the ISS once again broke new ground when, for the first time in its history, all eight of its docking ports were occupied.
According to a NASA statement, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft was the eighth ship to attach, allowing the ISS to reach full capacity.
NASA
As well as Cygnus, the ISS’s other ports were occupied by two SpaceX Dragons, JAXA’s HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.
Cygnus arrived to resupply the ISS, and will depart around March 2026, filled with trash and unwanted cargo.
The ISS is staffed by a rotating crew of scientists and engineers. Usually there are seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the ISS, who undertake vital scientific experiments while on board.
Though the ISS will be decommissioned in just a few years, the crewing arrangements will remain for the foreseeable future.
Pexels
When the ISS is decommissioned, it will be slowly deorbited once the last crew members have travelled home.
Much of the ISS will burn up as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere; what doesn’t will splash down into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.
Though sad, this is a necessary procedure, since the ageing ISS will soon be unsafe and impractical to crew.
So we need to make the most of this legendary space station while we can, since it’ll be nothing more than a memory very soon.
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