The 430-tonne orbiting space station being constructed by the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and Europe (16 nations and around 100 000 workers in all). The final cost was more than US$90 billion. The complete station, orbiting at an altitude of around 378 km, measures 72.8 m in length, 108.5 m across its solar wings, and 20 m in height. Teams of up to seven astronauts live and work for a period of three to six months in an area equivalent to the passenger cabins of two 747 jumbo jets. The ISS was launched in 1998. It is expected to be used until at least 2017. The first crew arrived at ISS in November 2000 under the command of NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd. By 17 September 2001, six habitable modules had been added to the ISS.

One of the first images of the entire International Space Station with its solar panels fully deployed. It was taken from the space shuttle Endeavour, which had just completed an hour-long undocking manoeuvre after nearly seven days at the space station.

Credit: NASA

In November 1998, the ISS’s first component was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome; this was the Russian control module Zarya (Russian ‘sunrise’), providing initial propulsion and power. Unity, the six-sided US node (intersection point) that connects the various modules was bolted on to Zarya the following month. Russia's Zvezda (Russian ‘star’) module, housing initial living quarters and flight controls, was connected in July 2000. The ‘Expedition One’ crew of three became the first long-term (four-month) residents on 2 November 2000 and chose their own name for the ISS: Space Station Alpha. In February 2001, NASA launched the US science laboratory module Destiny, the centrepiece of the station. In April, the ISS added the robotic Canadarm and was visited by US industrialist Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, who was reported to have paid around US$20 million to take part in the mission. By October 2001 the ISS was an estimated US$4.5 billion over budget. By 2004 it had reached a weight of 186 880 kg with a habitable volume of 425 cu m. Its width was 73 m across solar arrays, the length 44.5 m, and the height 27.5 m. Following the resumption of shuttle flights in 2005, NASA moved 75 600 kg of additional components to the ISS to triple the number of science facilities and triple the area of solar arrays.

Zarya is 12.6 m in length and 4.1 m at its widest point; Zvezda is 13 m long, with a wingspan of 30 m. After Zvezda was connected, it took over propulsion and thruster controls from Zarya, which was then used mostly for its storage capacity and external fuel tanks. Unity serves as a conduit for essential resources running to the living and working areas, and contains more than 50 000 mechanical items, 216 fluid and gas lines, and 121 electrical cables using 9.7 km of wire. Destiny, the first of six planned ISS research modules, serves as the command and control centre. It is 8.5 m long, with a widest point of 4.3 m. In 2004, it housed seven different research facilities. Today the ISS includes 16 pressurized modules and connecting nodes that contain living quarters and with more room than a five-bedroom house; it has two bathrooms, gym facilities, and a cupola with a 360-degree view; and it it still under construction.

In December 2015, launching on board Soyuz TMA-19M, Tim Peake became the first British astronaut to visit the ISS, taking his first space walk in January 2016. In September 2017, Peggy Whitson returned to Earth after spending a record-breaking 665 days in space. As of January 2018, 230 individuals from 18 countries have visited the ISS.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Breaking news, reports, and articles about the International Space Station.