Sixteen years after it was first proposed — and the wait has seemed every bit that long — the International Space Station is finally a reality. The first crew moved in last week, and one of its first acts, appropriately, was to give the new outpost a name.

US astronaut William Shepherd, who, along with two Russian cosmonauts, will live on the station for four months, had long lobbied for a less unwieldy name than 'International Space Station'. So during a televised chat with Daniel Goldin, chief of the US space agency NASA, Shepherd asked if the astronauts could call their new home 'Alpha'. Goldin, probably fearing a political wrangle among the station's international partners, had previously resisted any such move, but this time he gave in. So 'Alpha' it is — at least while Shepherd's crew is living there.

Purists will point out that this is not humanity's first space station. The Russians orbited the first Salyut station almost 30 years ago, followed by the US Skylab and the Russian Mir. But none of those projects approached the new station in terms of size, complexity or ambition. So even if Alpha is not an original idea, it can justifiably be called a fresh start.

NASA, too, seems poised to begin a new era of scientific research in orbit. The recent reorganization of the agency's microgravity and life-science programme (see page 123) bodes well for a more mature outlook on what can and cannot be accomplished in space. Gone are the grandiose claims, which raised eyebrows in the past, about space-based experiments leading to cures for cancer and AIDS. The focus has shifted away from the dubious accomplishments of past crystal-growth experiments on the space shuttle — once touted as a commercial bonanza for pharmaceutical companies but discredited by those who showed that it was cheaper to grow such crystals on Earth — and towards solid, peer-reviewed studies of gravitational biology.

Scientists involved in this highly specialized area of research have much to look forward to. Their prospects include far better laboratory facilities than those on board the shuttle or Mir, and the chance to repeat experiments and continue them for long periods. NASA's hope is that the space station will help draw new talent to the field. Those contemplating entering microgravity research may have to wait several years until the station is fully assembled. But what ground-based scientist would expect to start work in a new laboratory while builders were still installing the plumbing? Space is no different, just more complicated.

Scientists who have in the past been sceptical about space-based research should recognize and applaud the changes under way at NASA. The station has never been exclusively a science project, and should not be judged as such. It is most impressive as a feat of off-planet engineering, and it exists primarily because the United States and its partners want to establish a continuous human presence in space. For scientists, however, Alpha offers a real chance, at last, to find out whether there are substantive research questions worth pursuing on the high frontier.