ISS sets record with 8 spacecraft docked at once
In an unprecedented event, all docking ports of the International Space Station (ISS) are occupied by eight spacecraft for the first time.
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ISS sets record with 8 spacecraft docked at once
By Mudit Dube
Dec 04, 2025 01:16 pm
What's the story
The International Space Station (ISS) has witnessed a historic first: all eight of its docking ports are now occupied by different spacecraft. This unprecedented event was confirmed by NASA in a recent blog post. The ISS is currently home to two SpaceX Dragon spacecraft (one crew and one cargo); Northrop Grumman's Cygnus-23 cargo spacecraft; Japan's HTV-X1 cargo craft; two Roscosmos Soyuz crew vehicles; and two Progress cargo ships.
Operational challenges
ISS's busy schedule and crew count
The ISS is so full that controllers had to temporarily relocate a robotic spacecraft to make room for an astronaut taxi last week. The Cygnus-23 spacecraft was removed by the station's Canadarm2 last week to make way for the latest crewed Soyuz MS-28 mission, which delivered two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut to the station on November 28. Currently, there are 10 people on board the space station, including five from Expedition 73.
Transition phase
Upcoming departures and future of ISS
The Soyuz MS-27 mission is set to leave the orbital outpost, bringing back NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky on December 8. This will free up one of the docking ports on the ISS. NASA and SpaceX's Crew-11 mission will also return a crew of three astronauts and one cosmonaut aboard the docked Crew Dragon spacecraft sometime next year.
