![\"The](\"https:\/\/twistedsifter.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load-0.7\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" "\\"After")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
NASA<\/p>\n
In its 25 years in orbit, the International Space Station has given us a quarter of a century\u2019s worth of groundbreaking insights into space and our solar system.<\/p>\n
And though it is set to be deorbited and eventually plunge into the South Pacific Ocean in five years\u2019 time, the ISS is not about to stop making history yet.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, the ISS once again broke new ground when, for the first time in its history, all eight of its docking ports were occupied.<\/p>\n
According to a NASA statement<\/a>, Northrop Grumman\u2019s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft was the eighth ship to attach, allowing the ISS to reach full capacity.<\/p>\n NASA<\/p>\n As well as Cygnus, the ISS\u2019s other ports were occupied by two SpaceX Dragons, JAXA\u2019s HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.<\/p>\n Cygnus arrived to resupply the ISS, and will depart around March 2026, filled with trash and unwanted cargo.<\/p>\n The ISS is staffed by a rotating crew of scientists and engineers. Usually there are seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the ISS, who undertake vital scientific experiments while on board.<\/p>\n Though the ISS will be decommissioned in just a few years, the crewing arrangements will remain for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Pexels<\/p>\n When the ISS is decommissioned, it will be slowly deorbited once the last crew members have travelled home.<\/p>\n Much of the ISS will burn up as it re-enters the Earth\u2019s atmosphere; what doesn\u2019t will splash down into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n Though sad, this is a necessary procedure, since the ageing ISS will soon be unsafe and impractical to crew.<\/p>\n So we need to make the most of this legendary space station while we can, since it\u2019ll be nothing more than a memory very soon.<\/p>\n If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun\u2019s surface. Here\u2019s what it means.<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\tCategories: NATURE\/SPACE<\/a>, SCI\/TECH<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tags: \u00b7 cygnus XL<\/a>, deorbit<\/a>, international space station<\/a>, iss<\/a>, NASA<\/a>, science<\/a>, single topic<\/a>, space<\/a>, SpaceX Dragon<\/a>, top<\/a>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA In its 25 years in orbit, the International Space Station has given us a quarter of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,193993,99246,9693,18160,307,66,14091,306,57893,1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-478757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cygnus-xl","11":"tag-deorbit","12":"tag-international-space-station","13":"tag-iss","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-single-topic","17":"tag-space","18":"tag-spacex-dragon","19":"tag-top"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}