NASA Celebrates 20 Years of ISS Payload Operation

Back dropped by planet Earth, the International Space Station (ISS) is seen from NASA space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation in space, on May 29, 2011. (NASA via Getty Images)

NASA this year is celebrating 20 years of operating science payloads/research on board the International Space Station.

The Payload Operations Center at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, houses the International Space Station Payload Operations Integration Center, the Laboratory Training Complex, and simulation rooms used to prepare for space station expeditions.

The center has the capabilities and space for the creation of additional mission operations laboratory control rooms.

The Payload Operations Integration Center began around-the-clock operations in 2001.

Since station assembly was completed in the fall of 2011, a record amount of science has been achieved. Each year hundreds of experiments are completed.

Scientists take advantage of the orbital outpost to study the impact of microgravity and other space effects on several aspects of our daily lives.

Astronauts conduct research and technology demonstrations daily across a variety of fields, including human life sciences, biological science, human physiology, physical and materials science, and Earth and space science.