The Worldwide Area Station (ISS) is a modular area station in low Earth orbit. It’s a joint challenge of 5 taking part area companies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ISS serves as an area analysis laboratory, an Earth commentary platform, and a know-how testbed for future area exploration missions. The ISS has been repeatedly inhabited since 2000, and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 17 totally different international locations.
In 2025, the ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned and deorbited. Nevertheless, there are plans to increase the ISS’s lifespan till 2030. If the ISS is decommissioned in 2025, will probably be changed by a brand new area station known as the Lunar Gateway. The Lunar Gateway might be a smaller, extra modular area station that may orbit the Moon. The Lunar Gateway will function a base for astronauts and cosmonauts to conduct scientific analysis and put together for future missions to the Moon and Mars.