Space station marks 10 years
THREE-QUARTERS DONE, ORBITER IS THE SIZE OF A HOUSE

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 21, 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA couldn’t have staged it any better: 10 people in orbit for Thursday’s 10th anniversary of the world’s most elaborate and expensive housing project, the international space station.


In an image from NASA TV, mission specialist Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper is suspended Thursday on the end of the robot arm. AP PHOTO

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On Nov. 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No. 2, carried up by a space shuttle. Astronauts and cosmonauts moved in two years later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The space station has grown into a behemoth outpost 220 miles up, home to three people at any given time.

About the station

→Thanks to the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour, the space station now has five sleep stations, two baths, two kitchens and two mini-gyms. All told, there are nine rooms, three of them full-scale labs.

→Three-quarters complete, the total mass is 627,000 pounds. NASA says it’s about the size of a five-bedroom house.

→The space station has traveled 1.3 billion miles and orbited Earth more than 57,300 times.

→It has hosted 167 people from 15 countries and served more than 19,000 meals.


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Related Topics: Science and Technology, Technology, Space Technology, Manned Space Flight, Space Shuttles


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