On November 2, 2000, a Russian Soyuz capsule docked with the fledgling International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft carried on Expedition 1 two Russians and an American—Sergei Krikalev, Yuri Gidzenko and Bill Shepherd—the three of whom would spend more than four months on the station as its first crew.

Ten years on, the ISS is now the longest continually manned orbiting outpost in spaceflight history, having remained occupied with replacement crews since Krikalev, Gidzenko and Shepherd first arrived.

During that time the station has lived up to its name, welcoming visitors from a number of other countries—Italy, Belgium, Japan, Canada, Germany and France among them—as well as a few paying customers who have hitched rides on Russian rockets. And it has also grown considerably in size and technological capability, thanks in large part to dozens of U.S. space shuttle and Russian unmanned Progress cargo flights that have ferried hardware to the station.

Click here to watch the evolution of the ISS—from a lone, unmanned Zarya module that entered orbit in 1998 to today's sprawling, 100-meter-long outpost—as documented by space shuttle astronauts visiting the station.

5 Comments

1. 1. dbtinc 05:03 PM 11/2/10

   here goes - and what pray tell has been the outcome of this multi-billion dollar fiasco? At least we got Tang from the original space program. Let's spend our limited resources on unmanned missions - they have been beyond spectacular and have made contributions to science.

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2. 2. DaleEMoore 09:25 PM 11/2/10

   I say we build the space elevator next.

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3. 3. jimboagogo 04:31 PM 11/3/10

   Way cheaper than Afghanistan...and it got the Hubble fixed!

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4. 4. Wayne Williamson 08:17 PM 11/3/10

   The idea behind ISS is very nobel...so cool having many countries contribute to a huge endeavor...
   
   dbtinc...In some ways I agree...In the short term, bang for the buck goes to unmanned probes....In the long term, if human kind is to have a permanent presence in space we need to understand the impacts of zero g...then again in the long term...hopefully its not necessary...
   
   DaleEMoore...If we can get materials that are strong enough it is definitely the way to go....it would be a huge engineering feat...probably several spread around the equator....
   
   jimboagogo...I was going to post that the ISS had cost in the Trillions...but on further research I see your on target(~160 billion)...ps the ISS did not fix the hubble...that was the space shuttle crews and payloads...
   

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5. 5. robert schmidt 09:25 PM 11/4/10

   @dbtinc, "and what pray tell has been the outcome of this multi-billion dollar fiasco" hey, it is ok if you are ignorant but don't jump to the conclusion it was a "fiasco" just because you haven't taken the time to understand the contribution the ISS has made to science and technology. You sound like one of those money grubbing republicans who doesn't consider anything worthwhile unless it pads his personal pockets. If that is the case, science isn't for you, science is about acquiring knowledge not about creating wealth.

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