{"id":43240,"date":"2026-05-23T22:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/before-it-comes-down-what-should-be-saved-from-the-international-space-station\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T22:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T14:05:37","slug":"before-it-comes-down-what-should-be-saved-from-the-international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/before-it-comes-down-what-should-be-saved-from-the-international-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Before it comes down, what should be saved from the International Space Station?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humans do not just visit space; they live there, but a major part of that is coming to an end. The platform that made the longest continuous human presence in space possible is becoming history.<\/p>\n

With NASA and its partners beginning preparations for the destructive end of the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as 2030, those who collect, curate, and study the station are now asking how to preserve the historic and culturally significant artifact, given that it is far too large and complex to keep intact.<\/p>\n

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on Thursday hosted a three-part panel discussion, bringing together space program officials, museum curators, an archeologist, and an astronaut to begin answering the why, what, and how the ISS might be saved. The sessions were part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics\u2019 (AIAA) ASCEND conference in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen on the \u201cWhy Save ISS Heritage\u201d panel during the AIAA\u2019s ASCEND conference, on Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n AIAA\/David Becker\/PWHL<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI had a friend who works on the Artemis [moon] program come up to me when we had 25 years [of continuous human residency]. \u2018Congratulations, guys! You made space boring.\u2019 And we did\u2014and that\u2019s a good thing, actually,\u201d said Jacob Keaton, acting director of the International Space Station for NASA\u2019s Space Operations Directorate at the agency\u2019s headquarters in DC. \u201cNot only did we make it boring because of the technical competence that the team brings to the table, we made it boring because it became part of our national fabric, almost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just something that we do. We have people in space,\u201d said Keaton. \u201cThe ticket tape parades after Apollo were wonderful. That\u2019s a historic achievement\u2014for Artemis, too, absolutely. But for the space station, this is just who we are now. I think it\u2019s underappreciated the amount of work that it took to become boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

From \u201cboring\u201d to \u201cevocative\u201d<\/h2>\n

So how do you capture \u201cboring\u201d and make it accessible in how the program will be exhibited in museums for many years to come?<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cI like spaceflight nominal, that\u2019s my favorite type of spaceflight,\u201d said Stephen Bowen, acting director of cross-directorate technical integration at NASA and an astronaut who has spent 227 days in space, including 186 on the International Space Station in 2023. \u201cNominal is the way to be. I don\u2019t need any excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowen said what should be preserved are the crews\u2019 experiences from the 74 expeditions to date, and those still to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the opportunity to train around the world and throughout, you get to meet amazing people. Just that aspect can get lost if we don\u2019t continue these international missions, and I think that\u2019s really important going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a big person on holding onto things,\u201d said Bowen. \u201cThe biggest legacy, and what we should preserve, is just continue to fly similar missions. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing we can continue to do to maintain those specific items.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t bring everything back from the space station, so I\u2019ll leave it up to others to figure out what that is, and what priority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some of those others include Justin Walsh, a professor of art history, archeology, and space studies who performed the first archeological fieldwork to occur off Earth as the creator of the International Space Station Archeological Project, and Jennifer Levasseur, curator of the International Space Station collection at the National Air and Space Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cupola has long held a fascination with people,\u201d said Levasseur as the moderator of the day\u2019s second panel, speaking of the station\u2019s multi-windowed module. \u201cObviously, bringing it back may not be the best answer, but how can we preserve that view is a really important one, because it is such a cherished view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a physical space, a space one has to go into to be able to experience, and so there\u2019s something unique and special about that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The galley table on the International Space Station is an often cited candidate for what to save as an artifact given its traditional role as the place where the expedition crews gathered together.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Given Walsh\u2019s interest in the lived experiences of the crews, his choices centered on the international nature of those present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody\u2019s mentioned the [galley] table\u2014that\u2019s a really obvious thing\u2014but I was also thinking of the physical library of books on board the ISS in all of the languages that are spoken by crew members\u2014certainly Russian and English,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be great to bring some or all of that back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the other thing I was thinking of, because it keeps appearing in my photographs from our experiment on ISS, is there\u2019s a paper notebook. A bound paper notebook that is used by the crew in the Destiny [US laboratory], where they\u2019re writing down the things that they have to do,\u201d said Walsh. \u201cThat there is a kind of communication station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are getting their instructions from the ground, but they\u2019re also leaving notes for each other, and as a collaborative device to use this old technology, it\u2019s just wonderful. I like that as an evocative aspect of the ISS,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Space on the rides home<\/h2>\n

What is returned from the ISS will ultimately be limited by how much room is available on the dwindling number of vehicles set to land, with cargo remaining in the program. If the space station is de-orbited in 2030, as currently planned and agreed upon by all partners, the last significant down-mass availability will be three years from now.<\/p>\n

\u201c2028 is really when we start letting the ISS begin its natural [orbital] decay,\u201d said Ryan Landon, manager of the International Space Station research integration office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. \u201cAbout 18 months before deorbit, the USDV [US Deorbit Vehicle] will come up and dock. That will be right after the last crew comes up, and so once those two vehicles are on board, we will no longer have a vehicle that can return. Our last cargo home will be in the middle of 2029.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s tough to think about. It\u2019s a whole lot earlier than the next year and a half that the station\u2019s going to be in orbit, and so thinking about our priorities and what we need to bring home is a big question,\u201d Landon said. \u201cI probably have a better appreciation today for the legacy and the heritage and other hardware to bring home, so that\u2019ll be an interesting discussion, as far as weight and volume.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demand for storage on the remaining rides home for legacy and preservation purposes will compete with the station\u2019s primary purpose: conducting and returning science.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fish-eye image of the inside of a fully packed SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, like the type used to launch supplies to the International Space Station and return equipment back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cWe obviously seek to continue to utilize the International Space Station right up until that last moment when Ryan turns the lights out and sends things back home, so there will be drivers to maintain as much science capacity on those final return vehicles as we can,\u201d said Michael Roberts, chief scientist for the ISS National Lab. \u201cBut it\u2019s not lost on anyone that there is a tremendous scientific knowledge, as well as historical knowledge, that can be retained from the return of some of that instrumentation that\u2019s up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the likelihood of returning everything that everyone wants from the ISS before the shipments end is low.<\/p>\n

The data that is already on the ground, as well as the hardware that has been brought back over the past two and a half decades, will help fill some of those gaps, but of even more importance will be capturing the stories from the people who put the space station up there and made it into the one-of-a-kind facility it is today, said Brian Odom, NASA\u2019s chief historian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe window of that opportunity is going to close so quickly. Let\u2019s get the historians together. Let\u2019s look at this program, people who are familiar, let\u2019s get them in contact with the practitioners, with the engineers, with the scientists, with the astronauts and really determine what have been the big themes,\u201d said Odom, calling for an oral history initiative. \u201cLet\u2019s use this opportunity to do just that, and then begin the process of crafting a narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: collectSPACE\u2019s editor, the author of this article, was also a panel member, representing the worldwide community of space memorabilia collectors.<\/em><\/p>\n

Watch all three Saving ISS Heritage panel discussions from the 2026 ASCEND conference at collectSPACE.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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