Launched February 1986

The International Space Station

The United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and fourteen member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) are hard at work on the International Space Station (ISS), an Earth-orbiting space research facility scheduled to be completed in mid-2002 and operated by a full-time international crew. Phase I of the project is known as the Mir/Shuttle rendezvous program, in which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is launching eleven space shuttle flights over a four-year period, most docking with the Russian space station Mir. During docking, new crew members—including American astronauts—come aboard the station for stays that usually last four months, while veteran crew members return to Earth. On board Mir, its two or three resident astronauts and cosmonauts (Russian astronauts) perform scientific experiments and research, along with daily tasks and routine space station...