And in terms of the next decade of space station operations, you know,
I really think we can continue to take
advantage of the tremendous laboratory.
We continue to learn more about materials, science,
human research, help position ourselves for exploration.
I think space station's an excellent testbed for exploration.
We've done numerous things on space station to test exploration ops.
It's a series of habitats
that you have to keep, sustain and then you have to integrate
those science operations from multiple crews.
And so it's a good surrogate for a lunar base or even a mars base someday.
It's just an incredible facility.
And the fact that we've had between two and six astronauts in orbit
continuously for 23 years and how challenging that is,
we have an incredibly dedicated, talented team and they are there to
make the flight successful and make them safe.
And I see that every day.
And I'm just proud to be a part of the team.
Christina Koch of NASA, the first one through the hatch,
being greeted by her crewmates aboard the International Space Station,
The one thing I wish everyone knew about the space station was really
that we've had astronauts off the planet
for 23 years continuously.
And to me, it's just incredible.
The greatest single thing that we've learned on
the space station is to grow and eat our food.
When we're on Mars and we're growing it and eating our food
on Mars, we're going to trace that all the way back to the space station.
well, the astronauts grew and ate the red romaine lettuce on space station.
It was Scott Kelly.
Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui. Kjell harvested the lettuce,
and then they shared the lettuce and they did Cheers.
They toasted the lettuce and ate.
It another really great memory of space station was
when Scott Kelly unbuckled the zinnia flower that he grew.
was really fun to see him take it out to the Cupola I hope to see continue
safely produce crops on space station for deep space exploration missions.
I think folks don't realize that it takes an army of folks
and a huge effort to safely operate the ISS
and make sure that we can continue to do the work that we do
and to provide those science and research activities.
I think that NASA has made something very hard look very, very easy.
I don't think the general public realizes that behind the scenes that
that goes into making that such a success and really giving
all those those teams of people, you know, the accolades that they deserve.
We've learned so much about international cooperation.
I mean, the ISS has been successful because of the international partnerships
we've had.
We've learned the importance of that, both in developing technologies,
collaborating on science,
but also in terms of foreign policy and national interest.
Happy 25 years to the International Space Station.
Happy 25th ISS.
Happy 25 years.
International Space Station.