World Space Week Day 6 - The ISS International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility. In-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by late 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. The ISS can be seen from Earth with the naked eye and is by far the largest artificial satellite that has ever orbited Earth.
The ISS serves as a research laboratory in which crews conduct experiments in biology, chemistry, medicine, physiology and physics. The station provides a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS is operated by crews of six, with the station programme maintaining an uninterrupted human presence in space since the first launch of on 31 October 2000.
The programme is thus approaching the current record for uninterrupted human presence on a space station.
The ISS is a synthesis of several space station projects from  America, Russia, Europe and Japan. Budget constraints led to the merger of these projects into a single multi-national programme. The ISS project began in 1994when the first module of the station, was launched in 1998 by Russia. Assembly continues, as pressurised modules, external trusses, and other components are launched by American and Russian launch vehicles.
As of May 2010, the station consists of fourteen pressurised modules and an extensive integrated truss structures (ITS). Power comes from sixteen solar arrays mounted on the external truss, in addition to four smaller arrays on the Russian modules. The station has an orbit between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) altitude, and travels at an average speed of 27,743.8 km/h (17,239.2 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.
Operated as a joint project between the five participant space agencies, the station's sections are controlled by mission control centres on the ground operated by the NASA, the ESA, the RKA, the JAXA and the CSA.
The ownership and use of the space station is established in intergovernmental treaties and agreements that allow the Russian Federation to retain full ownership of its own modules in the Russian Orbital Segment, with the remainder of the station, allocated between the other international partners.
The cost of the station has been estimated by ESA as €100 billion over 30 years, and, although estimates range from 35 billion dollars to 160 billion dollars, the ISS is believed to be the most expensive object ever constructed.