Time flies when you’re conducting research in orbit and living in a microgravity environment! Monday marked the 15th birthday of the International Space Station (ISS), as mankind’s round-the-clock presence in outer space began all the way back on November 2, 2000.
The first crew members (Commander William Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko) departed on October 31 of that year, arriving at the new facility after a two-day voyage onboard a Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft, according to NASA. They spent a total of 141 days on the ISS, overseeing a pair of space shuttle missions during that time.
When Shepherd, Krikalev, and Gidzenko first arrived, the space station consisted of only three modules: the Unity module, the Zarya module, and the Zvezda service module. By the time the trio left, a solar array truss structure and the US Destiny laboratory module were added. In time, the ISS grew to be more than 350 feet long, making it the largest artificial body in space.
In a statement, Dr. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said that the ISS had “enabled groundbreaking research in the life and physical sciences” and had provided “a test bed for the technologies” that the US space agency planned to use in its upcoming manned mission to Mars.
15 years of the ISS by the numbers
Over the past 15 years, more than 220 different astronauts have taken a combined 350-plus trips to the space station, according to The Telegraph. As of 2013, 76 people had journeyed to the ISS at least twice, 25 had gone there three times, and five had made the trip on four occasions. A total of 45 crewed expeditions have traveled to the ISS to date, according to NASA.
Furthermore, experiments conducted in the orbiting laboratory have resulted in the publication of more than 1,200 different scientific papers, and some 40 million students worldwide have reaped the benefits of educational activities centered around the ISS. During the first expedition, only 22 scientific investigations were conducted, compared to nearly 200 for Expeditions 45 and 46.
In total, American and Russian astronauts have completed 180 spacewalks to maintain and repair the orbiting facility, and the ISS crew members have eaten a combined 26,500-plus meals during the past decade and a half. Approximately seven tons of supplies are needed to support crew over a typical six-month stay on the ISS, with macaroni and cheese among the favorite provisions.
While NASA astronaut Scott Kelly recently set a new record for the consecutive amount of time spent in space by an American, and is on pace to spend a total of 522 days on the ISS during the agency’s Year In Space project, he will fall short of the international record of 879 days on the space station—a mark set by cosmonaut Gennady Padalka in June.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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