Astronauts on the International Space Station began supporting the final decommissioning of ESA's Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) on 9 October 2026, according to ESA. The facility, one of the longest-serving scientific installations inside Europe's Columbus laboratory, launched with Columbus in February 2008.

ESA says FSL completed over 101 000 orbits, supported 18 scientific experiments and accumulated above 42 000 hours of operations. Designed for a 10-year lifespan, it remained productive for nearly twice as long. Its research covered how fluids, foams, emulsions and granular materials behave in microgravity, including experiments such as GEOFLOW, RUBI, FOAM-C, COMPGRAN and PASTA. The final science activities concluded in July 2026; the last PASTA-3 samples arrived at the station aboard Cygnus NG-23 in September 2025, and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot took part in one of the final crew-assisted activities.

French ESA astronaut Léopold Eyharts carried out the facility's initial activation in 2008, and the Belgian User Support and Operations Centre coordinated day-to-day science operations for more than a decade. Over the coming months, crews will prepare FSL for removal from Columbus and disposal aboard a future cargo spacecraft. ESA says the freed space will host new research hardware, with the ESA X-Ray Facility first in line.