The space station just did something for the first time in its history

The International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting Earth for the last quarter of a century. 

But it was only this week that all eight of its docking ports were filled at the same time.

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

The record-breaking moment came 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 at the station in September but briefly undocked last month to make way for the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts.  

“The Cygnus XL movement was coordinated between NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Roscosmos to provide appropriate clearance for the arriving crewed Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on November 27,” NASA said in a post on its website.

Cygnus will stay at the ISS until at least March 2026 when it’ll depart and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of up to 11,000 pounds of trash and unneeded cargo.

Filling up all of the station’s ports for the very first time marks the facility’s evolution into a bustling international hub for low-Earth orbit operations, and signals strong demand for future orbital infrastructure.

This is especially encouraging as the ISS is expected to end operations around 2030 due to high maintenance costs.

A number of U.S-based companies are already working on commercial designs to replace the ISS, while Russia is planning to deploy its own habitable satellite in the coming years. China already has a space station operating in low-Earth orbit.

For more on how astronauts live and work aboard the ISS, check out these insightful videos made by various visitors to the facility over the years.