The space station is a great platform to test
not only the hardware but the operations of living and working in space.
The beauty of the space station is that if something goes wrong,
we can get ourselves safely back to Earth in pretty short order.
We don't have that luxury when we go to deep space.
So this is the place where we make sure we've got it all right
before we send our friends and colleagues out into deep space.
I think the most important thing we've learned while living
and working on the space
station is that we can only do it when we're all on the same page.
We work with different people, different cultures, different nations,
and it is amazing to see what we can accomplish
when that machine is firing on all cylinders.
And we do it every day and we've been doing it for decades.
Nobody does this alone.
Human spaceflight is a team sport, and without the hundreds of thousands
of people who are supporting it, we would never be able to do it.
the ISS is the most incredible wonder of the modern world.
NASA's learned a lot of things from the ISS program.
You know, both fundamental biological and physical sciences, but also exploration
the single greatest achievement that I feel that the ISS program
has produced is that we can grow crops normally off Earth.
my favorite memory of ISS
support is Scott Kelly did a bouquet from the Zinnias
He created the first ever off earth flower arrangement,
What I hope to see from the ISS as we move forward is more tests
of sustainable technologies and approaches like crop production.
We've laid a foundation and experience base across
NASA and across the globe that's going to serve us very
well as we move into exploration, both in low-Earth orbit
as we continue, but also for moon and to Mars.
Human spaceflight is really complicated and it's really unforgiving.
Assembling space station was really complicated, yet
we successfully did that in space on orbit
and created the most advanced and complex spacecraft that's ever been built.
We have spurred a commercial interest.
We've spurred a government interest.
There's a passion for space that didn't exist before.
I think that that inspiration, that motivation that we generated across
the globe is probably the single most
astounding accomplishment that we've had with the space station.
Happy 25 years to the International Space Station.
Happy birthday, ISS.
Congratulations on 25 great years.
Happy 25 years. International Space Station.