The Space Station made history on November 2, 2000 when a three-person crew became the first to dock and move in. Now, the world is celebrating 15 years of astronauts living and working aboard the space station, orbiting the Earth at around 200 miles above the planet’s surface.
The station travels at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (5 miles per second), and has been visited by more than 200 people from various countries. In fact, the ISS has seen 45 crewed expeditions to date, and has had humans aboard every day since 2000, as crews switch in and out of the station every six months.
At the station, which is equipped with an orbiting laboratory, scientists have been able to conduct more than 1,700 research investigations to analyze how deep space missions affect the human body, to develop innovative ways to explore the outer reaches of the solar system and to test communication systems, among other projects.
And the pictures:
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