The ISS (International Space Station) is a big international project where different nations as there are USA, Russia, Japan, Brasil, Canada and Europe with the ESA are involved.
The ISS contents a lot of diiferent separate items and started with the construction in 1998.
The first Expedition to ISS was the Expedition 1 with Sheperd (USA), Gidsenko (Russia) and Krikalow (Russia). They launched on 31 of october 2000 with Sojus TM-31 and came back to Earth on 18 of march 2001 with the Shuttle Discovery STS-102.
The ISS is until now in construction and should be in function at least until the year 2022.
Today the Sojus spaceships with their rockets are the only manned vehicles which can reach the ISS after closing the Space Shuttle program by the USA.
The construction of the ISS started with the first module Zarya with a launch of a russian Proton rocket on 20.11.1998.
To the ISS today belongs today already more than 30 Moduls which have been launched by different rockets from different nations.
At the end of construction the ISS will have a total weight of 500 tons, will have a more than 80 m long strucktur in the center and the solarpannels will go from one to the other end with more than 107 m.
Today the ISS will serve for 6 crewmenbers for several months at the same time.
2.11.2000 the ISS was for the first time in function and used.
ISS (International Space Station)
Space Shuttle STS-102
launch 08.03.2001 James Wheterbee
(USA)
(Flight 103, Discovery) docking
to ISS 10.03.2001 James Kelly
(USA)
undocking 19.03.2001 Paul
Richards (USA)
landing 21.03.2001 Andrew
Thomas (USA)
ISS Expedition 2:
Juri Ussatschow (Russia)
Susan Helms (USA)
James Voss (USA)
Back to Earth crew:
James Wheterbee (USA)
James Kelly
(USA)
Paul Richards (USA)
Andrew Thomas (USA)
William Shepherd (USA, Sojus TM-31, ISS Expedition 1)
Juri Gidsenko (Russia, Sojus TM-31, ISS
Expedition 1)
Sergei
Krikaljow (Russia, Sojus TM-31, ISS Expedition 1)
201 Orbits
ISS Expedition 2 stayed 163 days in space
Space Shuttle
STS-103 launch
20.12.1999 Curtis Brown
(USA)
(Flight 96, Discovery) landing 28.12.1999 Scott Kelly (USA)
Steven Smith (USA)
Micheal Foale (USA)
John Grunsfeld
(USA)
Claude Nicollier (Switzerland) Jean-Francois Clervoy (France)
Back to Earth crew:
same
119 Orbits
Space Shuttle STS- 104
launch 12.07.2001 Steven
Lindsay (USA)
(Flight 105, Atlantis) docking to ISS 14.07.2001 Charles Hobaugh (USA)
undocking 22.07.2001 Michael Gernhardt (USA)
landing 25.07.2001 James Reilly (USA)
Janet Kavandi (USA)
Back to Earth crew:
same
200 Orbits
Space Shuttle STS-105
launch 10.08.2001 Scott
Horowitz (USA)
(Flight 106, Discovery) docking to ISS 12.08.2001 Frederick Sturckow (USA)
undocking 20.08.2001 Daniel Barry (USA)
landing 22.08.2001 Patrick Forrester (USA)
ISS Expedition 3:
Frank Culbertson (USA)
Michail Tjurin (Russia)
Wladimir Deshurow (Russia)
Back to Earth crew:
Scott Horowitz (USA)
Frederick Sturckow (USA)
Daniel Barry (USA)
Patrick Forrester (USA)
Juri Ussatschow (Russia, Space Shuttle STS-102, ISS Expedtion
2)
Susan Helms (USA, Space Shuttle STS-102, ISS
Expedition 2)
James Voss (USA, Space Shuttle STS-102,
ISS Expedtion 2)
186 Orbits
ISS Expedition 3 stayed 125 days in space
Space Shuttle STS-106
launch 08.09.2000 Terence
Wildcut (USA)
(Flight 99, Atlantis)
docking to ISS 10.09.2000 Scott Altman
(USA)
undocking 18.09.2000 Daniel Burbank
(USA)
landing 20.09.2000 Edward Lu
(USA)
Juri Malentschenko (Russia)
Richard Mastracchio (USA)
Boris Morukow (Russia)
Back to Earth crew:
same
185 Orbits