The Worldwide House Station (ISS) has been orbiting Earth for the final quarter of a century. 

However it was solely this week that each one eight of its docking ports have been stuffed on the identical time.

The spacecraft at the moment docked on the orbital outpost are: two SpaceX Dragons, a Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) HTV-X1, two Russian Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Russian Progress cargo ships.

The record-breaking second got here on Monday with the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module.

The Cygnus XL arrived on the station in September however briefly undocked final month to make manner for the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts.  

“The Cygnus XL motion was coordinated between NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Roscosmos to offer acceptable clearance for the coming crewed Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on November 27,” NASA said in a publish on its web site.

Cygnus will keep on the ISS till at the very least March 2026 when it’ll depart and dissipate in Earth’s environment, disposing of as much as 11,000 kilos of trash and unneeded cargo.

Filling up the entire station’s ports for the very first time marks the power’s evolution right into a bustling worldwide hub for low-Earth orbit operations, and alerts sturdy demand for future orbital infrastructure.

That is particularly encouraging as the ISS is expected to end operations round 2030 as a consequence of excessive upkeep prices.

Plenty of U.S-based firms are already working on commercial designs to replace the ISS, whereas Russia is planning to deploy its personal liveable satellite tv for pc within the coming years. China already has an area station working in low-Earth orbit.

For extra on how astronauts dwell and work aboard the ISS, check out these insightful videos made by numerous guests to the power through the years.