Partners agree to extending operations of International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) partners have committed to extending the operations of this unique platform in low Earth orbit to 2030. This extends the more than 22 years that humans have lived and worked on the ISS, which has been visited by 266 individuals from 20 countries since its launch in 1998. Canada, Japan, the USA, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK – have confirmed they will support continued space station operations through 2030 and Russia has confirmed it will support continued station operations through 2028.

Announcing the extension of ISS operations, NASA described the station as ‘ a unique scientific platform where crew members conduct experiments across multiple disciplines of research, including Earth and space science, biology, human physiology, physical sciences and technology demonstrations that could not be done on Earth’.