WASHINGTON, DC — NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum convened a three-part panel discussion on preserving artifacts from the International Space Station as the orbiting laboratory approaches its planned deorbit in 2030. The sessions were held as part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' ASCEND conference in Washington, DC.

The ISS, which has enabled the longest continuous human presence in space, is scheduled to be de-orbited in 2030 under the current agreement among all partners. In 2028, the station will begin its natural orbital decay. About 18 months before deorbit, the US Deorbit Vehicle will dock with the station. After that docking and the arrival of the last crew, no vehicle will remain capable of returning from the station, and the final cargo is scheduled to return in mid-2029. The volume that can be returned will be limited by the capacity of a dwindling number of landing vehicles, and demand for storage on those vehicles for preservation purposes will compete with the station's primary purpose of conducting and returning scientific research.

Stephen Bowen, acting director of cross-directorate technical integration at NASA, who has spent 227 days in space including 186 days aboard the station in 2023, said the crews' experiences from the 74 expeditions to date and future expeditions should be preserved. "I like spaceflight nominal, that's my favorite type of spaceflight. Nominal is the way to be. I don't need any excitement," he said. "Having the opportunity to train around the world and throughout, you get to meet amazing people. Just that aspect can get lost if we don't continue these international missions, and I think that's really important going forward."

Bowen said the focus should be on continuing the work rather than gathering objects. "I'm not a big person on holding onto things. The biggest legacy, and what we should preserve, is just continue to fly similar missions. I think that's the biggest thing we can continue to do to maintain those specific items."

Jennifer Levasseur, curator of the ISS collection at the National Air and Space Museum, pointed to the cupola observation module as a candidate for preservation. "The cupola has long held a fascination with people," she said. "Obviously, bringing it back may not be the best answer, but how can we preserve that view is a really important one, because it is such a cherished view."

Justin Walsh, a professor of art history, archaeology, and space studies who created the International Space Station Archaeological Project and performed the first archaeological fieldwork off Earth, identified everyday items aboard the station as candidates for preservation. "I think everybody's mentioned the galley table—that's a really obvious thing—but I was also thinking of the physical library of books on board the ISS in all of the languages that are spoken by crew members—certainly Russian and English," Walsh said. "And then the other thing I was thinking of, because it keeps appearing in my photographs from our experiment on ISS, is there's a paper notebook. A bound paper notebook that is used by the crew in the Destiny laboratory, where they're writing down the things that they have to do. They are getting their instructions from the ground, but they're also leaving notes for each other, and as a collaborative device to use this old technology, it's just wonderful. I like that as an evocative aspect of the ISS."