It took a decade and over 30 missions for the International Space Station (ISS), the biggest structure in space, to be finished.
The International Space Station
According to Space.com, the construction of the ISS started in 1998 and lasted until it was completed in 2011. The development of the project, originally called Freedom, was delayed due to technical and funding issues. Nevertheless, the station has been occupied since November 2000.
The ISS National Laboratory adds that the station is roughly the size of a football field. It is five times as big as the US Skylab and four times as big as the Russian Mir space station.
NASA's Office of the Inspector General reports that it costs NASA roughly $3 billion each year to run the ISS. This takes up around one-third of the budget for human spaceflight.
According to NASA, 258 people from 20 different countries had visited the ISS as of May 2022. Most of them come from the US (158 individuals) and Russia (54 individuals). Both research and astronaut time on the ISS are allotted based on the money or other resources contributed by agencies.
The station orbits the planet at roughly 250 miles above it. Space.com adds that its orbital path takes roughly 90% of the population of the Earth. Because of the gigantic size of its solar panels, the station can actually be spotted with the naked eye during dawn or dusk when flying in a local region. NASA has also provided a way to track the path of the space station.
A Multi-Nation Collaborative Effort
The ISS is a multi-nation project; it is not owned by just one country. In fact, the ISS is a result of collaborative efforts among the US, Europe, Russia, Japan, and Canada, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Space.com adds that 15 countries have contributed to the ISS. The station's major partners are NASA from the US, Roscosmos from Russia, and the European Space Agency. These agencies have the biggest contribution in terms of funding. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency have also partnered with the ISS.
Through the private firm Axiom Space, private astronauts are now working on orbiting complexes. At times, astronauts from countries like the UAE visit the ISS.
Plans for the station have laid out that it will be operating through 2024. NASA, however, has approved that this period be extended to 2030. However, Russia has expressed that it will be withdrawing after 2024 to focus on the construction of its own space station by roughly 2028. Specialists have not yet determined how the ISS will be operated after Russia's departure, and post-2030 plans for the ISS are not laid out clearly as well.
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