On Halloween 2000, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took a Soyuz flight to the newly built International Space Station (ISS), which has had humans living on it continuously for the 20 years since that first crew arrived. Built in sections, with the Space Shuttle doing most of the hauling, the ISS has served to provide an avenue for cooperation between the two sides of the Cold War, and for long-term stays in space. Compared to Shuttle missions, which might last for 10 days to two weeks, missions to the ISS can last six months or more.
The microgravity and space environment allow for unique scientific research, by the world’s space agencies directly, as well as by the many private and academic interests that send experiments to the ISS. With the new SpaceX Crew Dragon, NASA will be able to send four people to the ISS, and the increased staffing will allow for significantly expanding the time available for experimentation. (At present, simply maintaining the station demands a significant portion of the astronauts’ time.)
Commitments already exist for the ISS to be maintained through at least 2024, and no known engineering challenges exist that would preclude extending that date through at least 2028. The ISS does not include India, South Korea, or China, and the U.S. Congress has in fact barred NASA cooperation with China on such crewed missions in space.
