The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module's space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. (Photo: CNN)

From now until the end of its mission in 2030, the ISS still has a lot of experiments to complete. The space station is entering its third decade of operation, which has been one of the results of a global collaboration to develop technologies for deep space exploration for medical and environmental benefits. It has cracks discovered in the lab in 2019 and in the Zarya module in 2021.

The ISS is large enough that much of it will likely fail to burn up in the atmosphere, and its irregular-shaped solar arrays may make the station difficult to control as it spirals downward, according to Space.com.