How it started vs. how it's going⁣:

⁣Today marks the 25th anniversary of operations on the International Space Station (@ISS). On Dec. 6, 1998, the station's first two elements—the Unity and Zarya modules—were joined in low Earth orbit.⁣

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Since Nov. 2, 2000, humans have lived and worked continuously on the orbiting laboratory, bringing together international flight crews to perform more than 3,300 research and educational investigations for the benefit of humanity. The ISS has been visited by 273 people from 21 countries working together to prepare future human explorations for travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.⁣

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Swipe to see how the International Space Station started and what it looks like now.⁣

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Image descriptions: ⁣

1. View of the space station circa 2000 in the darkness of space. It consists of two cylindrical modules joined at their short ends. The Unity module on the left is slightly more gray than the longer cream-colored Zarya module on the right. A pair of solar panels extend upwards and downwards from Zarya.⁣

2. The station as seen during a fly-arond by the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. Four pairs of golden solar arrays are on each side, and three different sets of gray radiator panels accordion upward. The entire craft is nearly the size of a football field.⁣

⁣Credit: NASA⁣

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06 December 2023