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A Record Number of Spacecraft Have Swarmed the International Space Station

Victor Tangermann

created: Dec. 3, 2025, 4:02 p.m. | updated: Dec. 13, 2025, 11:26 a.m.

The International Space Station is slated to be retired just four years from now. In total, there are currently two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft (one crew and one cargo), Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft, Japan’s cargo spacecraft HTV-X1, which completed its maiden flight to the station on October 26, as well as two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft and two of its Progress cargo ships. With five cargo and three crew spacecraft currently docked, there are ten people currently residing on board the space station. NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-11 mission will return a crew of three astronauts and one cosmonaut on board the docked Crew Dragon spacecraft sometime next year. Several private space stations are currently in development, but when they’ll be launched into space, let alone host eight spacecraft simultaneously, remains to be seen.

2 months, 1 week ago: Futurism