Eerie ISS photo shows just how far space station has come as Elon Musk readies to destroy it
The ISS' operational life expires in 2030
Ellie Kemp
A photo from the early days of the International Space Station shows just how far the space lab has come - despite plans for it to be decommissioned with the help of Elon Musk by 2030.
Built in 1998, the ISS was created in collaboration with NASA, Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada).
It's since allowed scientists to conduct experiments that can't be done anywhere else, orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth.
Of course, it recently made headlines after two NASA astronauts' eight-day mission turned into a nine-month nightmare.
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Yet the station itself has contributed greatly to microgravity research and even studying health conditions that impact us mere mortals here on the ground.
The US space agency described the ISS as 'an unprecedented achievement in global human endeavors to build and utilize a research platform in space.'
But it wasn't built to last forever, with its operational life set to end in 2030 and Elon Musk's SpaceX drafted in to help decommission it.
Musk's company was awarded a $843,000,000 contract for the mission, which will see a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft latch on to the ISS and use its thrusters to propel the space station towards Earth.
As the ISS moves through the Earth's atmosphere, the station will largely break in to pieces and burn up.
But the larger modules of the space station will make it through the atmosphere and land in a final splash spot, landing at the Pacific Ocean's Point Nemo - the point in the ocean furthest from any landmass.
A resurfaced photo from 1998 shared to social media serves as a shocking reminder of how far the ISS has come as it enters its final few years of life.
Posting to Reddit's SpacePorn community, one person shared an eerie photo of the ISS looking oddly incomplete.
"26 and a Half Years Ago: The First Pieces of the International Space Station," they wrote.
The photo shows the Russian-built Zarya module on the left and the American-built Unity module on the right, the building blocks of the ISS.
The photo was taken on December 13, 1998, while on December 6, the space shuttle Endeavour launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying Unity and two connectors.
That same day, the crew caught up with the Zarya module - launched earlier on November 20 - and joined it to Unity.
Since, it's grown into a larger orbiting laboratory with over a dozen pressurized modules from countries around the world - as well as advanced solar arrays, robotic arms and living quarters for a full-time international crew.
More than 280 people from 23 countries and five international partners have visited the ISS over the years, NASA reports.