Following Skylab and Mir, the latest entry in orbit around our planet is the International Space Station. This piece of latest technology measures over 70 meters in length and represents the culmination of over seven years worth of work by a consortium of sixteen nations (United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe). With an original budget of 60 billion dollars and an anticipated 35 Shuttle missions for its complete construction, the life expectancy of Space Station Alpha is thirty years. The first section of the ISS, the 24.2-ton Zarya module, was put into orbit in Nov/98 and was followed by the placement of the US-constructed Unity module by the STS-98 crew in Dec/98. The third and fourth missions to ISS (STS-96 in June/99 and STS-101 in May/00) involved the transport of various tools and cranes in anticipation of the arrival of the third major component, namely the Zvezda Service Module in July/00. STS-97 in Nov/00 was the last shuttle mission of the 20th century and was responsible for the delivery and installation of the solar panels. The first shuttle mission of the 21st century, STS-98 (Feb/01), delivered the Destiny Laboratory Module. Finally, STS-100 (Apr/01) delivered the station's robot arm and a second reusable cargo system (the Italian built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module known as "Rafaello" which follows the earlier similar system "Leonardo").

Note: The ISS currently measures 73.0 x 44.5 x 27.5 m in size and is characterized with an angular diameter of up to 45" on close approaches!