Critics of the International Space Station are missing the point

The International Space Station (ISS) is reaching the end of its life, with agencies around the world planning for its demise in around 2030. This orbiting behemoth has been continuously occupied for nearly 24 years by astronauts and cosmonauts from the US, Russia, Europe, Japan, Canada and many other regions, but it is getting old. It is nearly time to bring it down (see “Inside NASA’s ambitious plan to bring the ISS crashing back to Earth”) before its ageing parts take it out in a much more dangerous way.

The endeavour of keeping such a huge laboratory in orbit has been controversial, with some saying that it has been a waste of money or that it should have been deorbited long ago. Critics claim it hasn’t lived up to all of its promises and the scientific results from studies on the station haven’t done enough to help matters on Earth. Those criticisms may or may not be true, but they are missing the point.

The ISS, as a global collaboration on a very difficult venture in space, has always represented the possibility of a better world, one of peace and cooperation. Its two primary stakeholders, the US and Russia, have long been at odds on the ground, but that hasn’t deterred astronauts and cosmonauts from working together aboard the station in an effort to increase global knowledge and reach into the solar system. It is a symbol of humanity striving towards a common goal.

Once the ISS goes, we are vanishingly unlikely to see anything like it again. NASA and other space agencies are focusing on the moon, and the possibility of building an international astronaut village there, while an exciting prospect, is a pipe dream for now. Our prime example of international cooperation will burn up in the atmosphere and plunge into the ocean, and that loss will resonate beyond space science. It represents a withering of global collaboration, just the sort of thing we need to meet the grand challenges the world is facing now, such as climate change – and that is a loss we should all lament.