Before it comes down, what needs to be saved from the International Space Station?

“It’s hard to imagine. It’s been more than the next year and a half that the radio will be around, so figuring out what we need to do and what we need to bring home is a big question,” Landon said. “Perhaps I’m more appreciative today of the legacy and the other tools that bring home, so it’s going to be an interesting conversation, about the weight and the amount.”

The need to save on the remaining flights home for storage and storage competes with the station’s main mission: to do and return science.

A fish-eye view of the interior of the loaded SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, as it is used to unload cargo from the International Space Station and return equipment to Earth.

Credit: NASA

“Obviously we want to continue using the International Space Station until the last time when Ryan turns off the power and sends things home, so there will be astronauts to continue using science on the last vehicles we can,” said Michael Roberts, the agency’s chief scientist. ISS National Lab. “But it’s not lost on anyone that there’s a lot of scientific knowledge, and a lot of knowledge, that can be saved by recovering some of the equipment that’s out there.”

So the chances of returning anything anyone wants from the ISS before the supply runs out is low.

What’s already on the ground, as well as the equipment recovered over the past two and a half decades, will help fill in some of the gaps, but the most important thing is to take the stories from the people who put the space station together and make it the one place it is today, said Brian Odom, NASA’s chief historian.

“The window of that opportunity is closing very quickly. Let’s get historians. Let’s look at this program, the people who know it well, let’s talk with experts, experts, scientists, scientists, and scientists and find out what has become the big stories,” said Odom, calling for a historical agenda. “Let’s use this opportunity to do just that, and then start making stories.”

Disclosure: CollectSPACE’s editor, the author of this article, was also a member of the group, representing the international community of space collectors.

Watch all three To maintain discussion of the ISS Heritage group from the 2026 ASCEND conference at collectSPACE.