**ISS in Real Time: A Revolutionary Portal Celebrating 25 Years of Human Presence in Space**
As the International Space Station (ISS) approaches a remarkable milestone—25 continuous years of human habitation—enthusiasts, historians, and the general public are being offered an unprecedented way to experience this achievement. Thanks to a new website called ISS in Real Time, created by NASA contractors Ben Feist and David Charney, anyone can now explore the daily life and history of the ISS through a rich, interactive archive that spans nearly every day since the station was first occupied.
### Bridging a Quarter-Century of Space History
For a full quarter-century, the ISS has served as a unique laboratory and home above Earth, with astronauts and cosmonauts documenting their experiences through countless photos, videos, and audio calls. While much of this material was already available to the public, it was scattered across numerous repositories and lacked an integrated timeline that could put each artifact in context.
Feist and Charney, both involved with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, saw an opportunity to connect these disparate resources into a single, coherent narrative. Working in their spare time outside their official duties, they spent 11 months meticulously gathering, organizing, and presenting the ISS’s twenty-five-year story on a single platform. Their efforts culminated in the launch of ISS in Real Time on October 27, just days before the November 2 anniversary of continuous human presence aboard the station.
### A Monumental Data Integration Effort
The scale of the data consolidated in ISS in Real Time is staggering. At launch, the site boasted:
- 9,064 days of mission data out of a total of 9,131 days (over 99% coverage) - Audio records covering 4,739 days, including 4,561,987 space-to-ground communication calls in 69 languages - 6,931,369 photos taken in space, spanning 8,525 days - 10,908 articles from 7,711 days - 930 videos across 712 days
Had this archive been attempted using the technology available when the first ISS crew arrived in 2000, it would have filled nearly 4,000 CD-ROMs—an apt illustration of how much history has been generated and preserved.
### Overcoming Technological and Archival Challenges
Creating ISS in Real Time was not simply a matter of downloading files. Feist and Charney had to navigate the complexities of data formats, inconsistent metadata, and the limitations of early 2000s technology. While modern missions benefit from digital media and platforms like YouTube and Flickr, the earliest years of the ISS were documented on tapes and in formats that predated widespread streaming and cloud storage.
The pair relied exclusively on publicly available data, partly due to strict government export controls that prohibit sharing non-public NASA materials. This meant acting as if they were outside NASA, scouring the internet for every accessible piece of media. For