Who's Winning the Space Station Race Right Now?

2026-03-08 05:25:00 ET

In 2030, the International Space Station (ISS) will pass its sell-by date. NASA will then pay Elon Musk $843 million to push the space station to a fiery death . What happens then?

Ideally, by the time ISS takes its swan dive, mostly burning up in Earth's atmosphere before plunging into the Pacific, we will have one or more privately owned space stations in orbit and ready to take the ISS' place. Currently, four separate teams of space companies are developing such space stations:

One of these teams just made a major advance.

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