International Space Station

A few words to begin

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station in low Earth orbit (LEO). It is the product of the International Space Station program and is operated by five partner space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada). It is the first space station built, maintained and crewed through international cooperation and the largest human spacecraft ever constructed. It is an orbital research station, where scientific experiments in microgravity are conducted and the space environment is studied. Since 2 November 2000, it has hosted the longest continuous human presence in space. Alongside China's Tiangong, it is one of two currently operational space stations. The station orbits between 51.64° north and south, at about 400 kilometres (250 miles) above Earth, below the Van Allen radiation belts and most space debris. Its orbit takes it at 7.67 km/s (27,600 km/h; 17,200 mph) roughly every 93 minutes around Earth, 15.5 times a day. Measuring 109 m (358 ft) (with solar arrays) by 73 m (239 ft), it is as large as a full-sized football or soccer field, and has a pressurised internal volume of 1,005 m3 (35,491 ft3), comparable to a Boeing 747 airliner. The station is a modular space station divided into two main sections: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), developed by Roscosmos, and the US Orbital Segment (USOS), built by NASA, E…