Although the story begins much earlier (in the mid -1990s, when its construction began and in 1998 when it was launched) for the purpose of this story, the beginning occurred in November 2000, when its first “inhabitants” arrived. It was at that time when the International Space Station (ISS for its acronym in English) It became the most important laboratory on the planet … outside the planet. And now he has touched his time.
Beyond his numerous discoveries and studies, The ISS is, together with CERN, the greatest example of international cooperation. One that, in 2030, will end when the ISS will be exorbitant and “buried” in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.
In total, More than 4000 experiments have been carried out aboard the ISS, What has resulted in more than 4400 research publications dedicated to promoting and improving life on Earth and laying the foundations for future space exploration activities.
However, after the retirement of the station, the space agencies around the world (NASA, ESA, Japax and Roscosmos, among others) have begun to look for alternatives for Extend the human presence more than 400 kilometers on the earth’s surface.
This is how, in December 2021, NASA announced three grants to help Develop private and commercially operated space stations in low orbit. And it is not the first time.
For years, NASA has successfully sent supplies to the International Space Station through commercial partners, and recently began similar trade agreements with Spacex and Boeing for the transport of crew on board the Dragon and Starliner spacecraft, respectively.
“Thanks to the success of these programs -explains John M. Horack, from Ohio State University, in an essay -, NASA invested more than 400 million US dollars to boost the development of commercial space stations and, hopefully, launch them and activate them before the dismantling of the ISS ”.
In September 2025, NASA published an advertisement for the proposals for collaboration with phase 2 for commercial space stations. Selected companies will receive financing to support critical design reviews and Make demonstrations of stations with four people in orbit for at least 30 days.
The next step is The formal acceptance and certification of the design to ensure that these stations meet their strict security requirements. The result will allow NASA to acquire missions and other services aboard these stations commercially, similar to how NASA transports load and crew to the ISS currently.
But while these stations are built, Chinese astronauts will continue to live and work aboard the Tiangong Space Station, a permanent crew installation for three people that orbits approximately 402 km on the earth’s surface. Thus, when 2030, China and Tiangong arrive, they will assume control as the spatial station inhabited continuously in operation.
“They will spend several years before some of these new commercial spatial stations orbite the land about 28,000 kilometers per hour -concludes Horack -so, as long as he has the opportunity, take a look and enjoy the view. Almost every night, when the ISS overwhelm, it is simply magnificent: A bright whitish blue light, usually the brightest object in the sky, silently drawing an elegant arch in the sky”