Picture above: The ISS in September 2000, courtesy NASA
By Burt Dicht
NSS Managing Director of Membership
On November 2, 2025, we are going to have fun a exceptional milestone—25 years of steady human presence in house. Since November 2, 2000, when Expedition 1 arrived aboard the Worldwide House Station (ISS), Earth has by no means had all of its residents residing on Earth. For a full quarter century, somebody—someplace above us—has been dwelling off-planet.
When the ISS passes overhead, it’s straightforward to see it as simply one other vibrant dot within the night time sky. However that mild carries a deeper that means—it’s a logo of what humanity can obtain once we work collectively, dream boldly, and refuse to let the boundaries of our planet outline us.
It’s straightforward to give attention to the expertise—the station’s intricate programs, energy arrays, and modules which have stored it working for a technology. However what makes this anniversary actually exceptional will not be the equipment, it’s the folks. For 25 years, small rotating crews have circled the globe each 90 minutes, conducting experiments, sustaining the station, studying to reside in house, and sharing a view of our world that few have up to now skilled.
A number of years in the past, a buddy was visiting me right here on the House Coast, and the timing was good to see a SpaceX cargo resupply launch to the ISS. As we watched the rocket rise into the sky she requested what was aboard. I defined that it carried experiments, tools, and provides for the crew dwelling on the ISS. After a number of extra questions, it turned clear she didn’t notice that individuals have been truly dwelling there, a perspective shared by many People.
That shared second jogged my memory how simply we take the legacy of the ISS with no consideration. For a lot of, the house station has light into the background. But, for 1 / 4 century, the U.S. and its worldwide companions have maintained a everlasting human outpost in house.
The trail to steady human presence started many a long time in the past. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan initiated the event of a everlasting house station referred to as Freedom, setting in movement what would turn into the ISS. By the early Nineties, a change within the political panorama led the Freedom idea to be merged with Russian, European, and Japanese house station initiatives within the Nineties, resulting in the multinational imaginative and prescient for the ISS.
The primary section, Russia’s Zarya module, launched on November 20, 1998, and would supply preliminary energy, propulsion, and docking capabilities. The U.S.-built Unity Node 1 was launched and related to Zarya in December 1998, marking the primary worldwide meeting in orbit. The Russian Zvezda service module was added in mid-2000, enabling everlasting human habitation. After launching aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on Oct 31, 2000, the primary crew to occupy the ISS, consisting of NASA astronaut Invoice Shepherd and ROSCOSMOS cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, boarded the station as Expedition 1. The station has been constantly occupied ever since.
Expedition 73 is now occupying the ISS and thus far greater than 280 folks from 27 nations have lived aboard the station. They’ve carried out groundbreaking analysis, celebrated holidays, noticed Earth’s climate programs, peered out on the wonders of house, shared meals throughout cultures, and constructed friendships in a spot with out borders. Every crew rotation, which happens each six months, quietly reinforces a profound truth: we’re not a planet-bound species.
Each day life aboard the ISS is a mix of science, survival and routine. Astronauts conduct hundreds of experiments that advance drugs, supplies science, and physics, all whereas sustaining their very own well being and the station’s many intricate programs. They train two hours a day (protecting their muscle tissue robust), restore tools, and join with family members again on Earth.
Psychologically, it’s each isolating and galvanizing. Many astronauts describe the “Overview Impact”—a phrase coined by NSS board member Frank White, that highlights a shift in perspective when seeing Earth as one fragile, interconnected world. Down beneath, their households adapt to life aside, conscious that their family members are 250 miles above in an surroundings the place all the pieces depends upon preparation, teamwork, and belief.
The ISS is excess of a science platform; it’s certainly one of humanity’s biggest examples of peaceable cooperation. Fifteen nations labored collectively to construct and maintain it, and greater than 100 international locations have participated in analysis aboard. For over twenty years, it has served as a bridge between former rivals and a mannequin for worldwide partnership.
Its analysis legacy is equally spectacular—over 4,000 experiments in biology, physics, supplies, and drugs. Every one contributes not solely to our data, applied sciences and expertise we’ll want as we transfer farther into the photo voltaic system, but additionally advantages us on Earth. To be taught extra about ISS functions try the NSS Weblog submit from September 21: In House for Earth: Breakthroughs from the ISS.
As we have fun 25 years of people dwelling off-Earth, we additionally look towards what comes subsequent. The ISS has been our proving floor for long-duration flight, serving to us perceive methods to reside and work in house. The teachings realized aboard the station will information future missions to the Moon, Mars, and past.
The house station’s eventual retirement will mark the top of 1 chapter, however not the story of dwelling off-world. New business house stations are presently beneath improvement, guaranteeing that humanity’s presence in orbit continues. The ISS has proven us that dwelling in house is feasible—and sustainable.
This anniversary is greater than a milestone of engineering—it’s a cultural turning level. For 25 years, we’ve sustained a steady human presence in house. That’s a truth price pausing to contemplate. We have now quietly crossed a threshold in human historical past: Earth is not the one place the place folks reside and house is actually our new frontier.
Additional Studying and Occasions
- issinrealtime.org for a real-time glimpse of life aboard the ISS; observe the crew’s actions as they occur and look again on the final 25 years.
- nasa.gov/spot-the-station is the official NASA app that helps customers observe and obtain notifications for Worldwide House Station viewing
- Advert Astra 2025 4th Quarter, to be revealed in December, will function tales in regards to the ISS—its legacy, its folks, and its future.
- Three wonderful books chronicle life aboard the ISS and what it means: Endurance by Scott Kelly, An Astronaut’s Information to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, and The way to Astronaut by Terry Virts.
- The NSS House Discussion board on November 20, “Alternate options to Deorbiting the ISS: Repurposing an Worldwide Treasure” introduced by David Cheuvront (NASA JSC – Retired). Will probably be obtainable quickly on the NSS YouTube Channel.
- Issabove.com downlinks reside views from the ISS in hi-definition video 24/7.
