Since 2 November 2000, the ISS has been continuously inhabited by astronauts (290 people from 26 countries) who have devoted their time to carrying out all kinds of research and technological development projects in an extraordinary setting of international coexistence.
Where were you on 20 November 1998? And on 2 November 2000? Do you remember? More than a quarter of a century has passed since that day when a Russian Proton rocket took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Kazakhstan). Inside, it carried the first of the modules that would make up the future International Space Station, the Zarya. Two years and several modules later, on 2 November 2000, the first crew members (two Russian and one American astronauts) arrived and began an uninterrupted stay on the space station that continues to this day. Initially, it was a small three-room dwelling, but it grew to a length of 109 metres and included many rooms dedicated to research, rest, project development and cohabitation. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Two noteworthy events emanate from the ISS (International Space Station): one political and the other technological.
In the political context, it highlighted the fact that a number of very different countries could be able to working together for a great common project. Up to that point, each space agency had had its own orbital station projects (Skylab, MIR Station), which ultimately proved to be more expensive than any single country, however large, could afford.
While it is true that there is a Russian section and an international section on the ISS, depending on who manufactured and who manages each module, the reality is that collaboration between countries is exceptional in almost all fields.
But the most important thing about the ISS is its technological and scientific impact. In addition to all the challenges that its construction has posed in terms of aerospace, all of which have been overcome, we must add the fact that it constitutes a unique platform for carrying out scientific research that could not have been carried out in any other way. More than five hundred scientific programmes have already been carried out in this extraordinary laboratory.
However, in order to reach the current level of performance, habitability and self-sufficiency, it has been necessary to add a large number of new sections to the original module and put in many hours of work. To this end, more than 200 missions have been carried out, transporting crew members, supplies, spare parts, tools, resources for experiments and new components between the space station and Earth. Many of these missions have also been carried out without a crew on board.
In order to raise awareness of the enormous technological challenge and the immense planning work required for the development of the ISS, we have compiled some of its most relevant features, components and interesting facts in this infographic. It seems like yesterday, but it has already been twenty years since the first of its modules began orbiting the Earth.
