Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 11 2007

The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in orbit around the Earth. It is a joint project between five space agencies.

The ISS is a continuation of what began as the U.S. Space Station Freedom, the funding for which was cut back severely. It represents a merger of Freedom with several other previously planned space stations: Russia's Mir 2, the planned European Columbus and the Japanese Experiment Module. Construction of the station is currently underway, with a projected completion date of 2010, but ISS is already larger than any previous space station.

The ISS has been continuously inhabited since the first resident crew entered the station on 2 November 2000, thereby providing a permanent human presence in space. The station is serviced primarily by Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and by U.S. Space Shuttle orbiters. At present the station has a capacity for a crew of three. Early crewmembers all came from the Russian or U.S. space programs. German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter joined the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006, becoming the first crewmember from another space agency. The station has however been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 14 countries, and the Expedition 16 crew will include members from all five space agencies forming the ISS partnership. ISS was also the destination of the first four space tourists.

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