360The first part of the International Space Station is launched
On 20 November 1998, a Russian Proton rocket launched Zarya from Baikonur, the first module of the International Space Station. Weeks later, a US shuttle attached the Unity module. The first crew moved in on 2 November 2000, and people have lived aboard ever since. Built by five space agencies, it is the largest structure in orbit.
In the 1990s, the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada agreed to build a permanent laboratory in space together.
The first piece, a Russian-built module called Zarya, meaning 'dawn', was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 20 November 1998. In December, the space shuttle Endeavour brought the American Unity module, and astronauts joined the two.
The first resident crew, the American astronaut Bill Shepherd and the Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, arrived on 2 November 2000. Since then, the station has never been empty.
Over more than a decade, dozens of missions added modules, laboratories and huge solar arrays. The finished station is about the size of a football field and circles the Earth about every 90 minutes, roughly 400 km up.
Astronauts from more than 20 countries have lived and worked aboard, running thousands of experiments in medicine, materials and Earth science. The station is planned to retire around 2030.
- 20 November 1998
- Zarya is launched
- December 1998
- The Unity module is attached
- 2 November 2000
- The first crew moves in
- 2011
- Main assembly is completed
- 2030
- Planned retirement
Sources: NASA · ESA · Roscosmos · Britannica.