The scientific and cultural impact of the International Space Station after 25 years

Geoff Bennett:

This week marks the 25th anniversary of when astronauts first stepped onto the beginnings of a new International Space Station.

A quarter-of-a-century later, the station is now manned by seven international crew members and has become an iconic and important part of space history. It circles the globe almost every 90 minutes.

But the celebration is bittersweet, as the station is set to be decommissioned.

I spoke earlier about it with our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, thanks for joining us.

What would you say are the main accomplishments of the International Space Station 25 years later?

Miles O’Brien:

I would say, Geoff, it is not so much the science, as it is the partnership itself.

The fact that the former Cold War space race rivals, the U.S. and Russia, got together in a partnership, along with Europe, Japan and Canada, about 15 nations in all, and managed to make this partnership work all this time is truly extraordinary, especially when you consider recent events in Ukraine and some concerns that the partnership would go sideways.

And yet, at the cosmonaut level, the engineer level, there are healthy and safe relationships, most importantly, for the International Space Station which have endured. And there's a lesson in there somewhere, the fact that a peacetime project like this involving multiple nations could last so long. I can't think of anything quite like it.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, beyond the important relationships and the diplomacy, what can you tell us about the science that has been conducted on board?

Miles O’Brien:

It's been interesting.

Most of the science, frankly, is all about allowing humans and spacecraft to endure space for long periods of time. So it's narrowly focused in many respects on its own mission. However, there have been some spillovers into other areas. And NASA likes to tout the space station as a way of solving problems here on Earth.

Just to give you an example, though, when you learn about osteoporosis on Earth, it has a lot to do with what astronauts encounter when they're in space. Their bones become brittle and become weaker. And as they return to Earth, they have a hard time rebuilding all of that. So they have learned about how to manage that by learning how to keep their astronauts safe in space.

So there has been some science. The idea, though, that they would somehow go up there and grow these protein crystals in zero gravity in a way that you could identify new ways to make drugs and cure cancer, that has not happened, however.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, 25 years is an eternity when it comes to tech and innovation. And the ISS has these Russian modules on board, which I understand have had all sorts of technical issues, including some leaks.

So when is the International Space Station slated for retirement?

Miles O’Brien:

Yes, Geoff, it's a little long in tooth at this point. Some of the Russian modules have been leaking and there have been other problems along the way. It's getting old.

Right now, NASA has committed to flying the station until 2030. The Russians say they want to get out a little bit sooner, but we are in the latter days of the space station era, at least the International Space Station era. Maybe others will follow.

Geoff Bennett:

Well, once the space station is gone, will there be destinations for NASA or other commercial spacecraft in low-Earth orbit?

Miles O’Brien:

Well, it's a little bit like what happened after the shuttle.

NASA turned to lean on private enterprise a little more, mostly with SpaceX. In this case, NASA is seeking commercial entities to build space stations that NASA could use as a destination and pay to visit. One of the companies, Axiom, based in Houston, which has a lot of old NASA space station players involved in it, actually has a docking port on the current International Space Station and aims to launch a module onto the space station to get it sort of up and running.

And then, when the space station goes off into the horizon, so to speak, off into the West, they would undock and begin building this commercial station. The concern is, there will be some sort of gap once again, as there was after the shuttle retired, before the U.S. was able to get astronauts in space from U.S. soil.

Geoff Bennett:

Do I have it right, Miles, that China will be the only nation to directly operate a space station by 2030? What kind of problems does that create?

Miles O’Brien:

It's interesting.

You think of the decision back in 2006, I believe it was, when Congress said NASA should not partner with the Chinese on the space station. The Chinese really wanted in. You have got to wonder if that was the best decision, in retrospect.

But, yes, China has a space station now. It's been up and running, continuously manned now since 2021. The U.S. presumably will move into this commercial space station. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin claims Russia will build another government-run space station that it hopes to have in orbit by 2027.

Remains to be seen if that's going to be real. But, regardless, I think it's important for NASA to have a destination in low-Earth orbit that it can go to. If a commercial player will do it, that'd be great. I think it's a pretty difficult business case, however.

Geoff Bennett:

And my last question, Miles, is a fairly practical one.

How will NASA ensure that this giant space station doesn't become dangerous space junk and reenter the atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner?

Miles O’Brien:

Yes, this is the Skylab scenario, 1979. The first U.S. space station fell out of the sky in an uncontrolled manner because it was waiting for the space shuttle to come boosted and it wasn't ready to do that.

And so it came down. Most of it landed in the Indian Ocean. Parts of it landed over Western Australia. It was a very controversial thing and had a lot of people scared there for a little while. What they will do in this case is build a giant space tug, maybe turning to SpaceX. We will see.

Attach it to the space station, so it can be thrust down in a controlled manner into the Southern Pacific Ocean, where no one gets hurt, hopefully.

Geoff Bennett:

Like a cosmic tow truck.

Miles O'Brien, thanks so much.