Editing Marshall Space Flight Center (section)

===International Space Station===
The [[International Space Station]] is a partnership of the United States, Russian, European, Japanese, and Canadian Space Agencies. The station has continuously had human occupants since November 2, 2000. Orbiting 16 times daily at an average altitude of about {{cvt|250|mi|km}}, it passes over some 90 percent of the world's surface. It has a mass over {{cvt|932,000|lb|kg}}, and a crew of six conducts research and prepares the way for future explorations.{{citation_needed|date=July 2019}}

It is planned that the International Space Station will be operated at least through the end of 2030. Following the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, crewed NASA missions to the ISS were supported by Russian Soyuz spacecraft until 2020 when NASA’s Commercial Crew Program became operational with regular launches of SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rockets https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-spacex-finalize-extension-of-commercial-crew-contract/. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner Commercial Crew spacecraft will join upon completion of NASA’s mandated test protocols https://www.space.com/41360-how-boeing-starliner-commercial-spacecraft-works.html. 

MSFC has supported activities in the U.S. Laboratory (''Destiny'') and elsewhere on the International Space Station through the [[Payload Operations and Integration Center|Payload Operations Center]] (POC). The research activities include experiments on topics ranging from human physiology to physical science. Operating around the clock, scientists, engineers, and flight controllers in the POC link Earth-bound researchers throughout the world with their experiments and astronauts aboard the ISS. {{As of|2011|03}}, this has included the coordination of more than 1,100 experiments conducted by 41 space-station crew members involved in over 6,000 hours of science research.{{citation_needed|date=July 2019}}