What exactly is the international space station?
THIS IS ONLY AN EXTRACT, from the link written below. Where you can go for images and a lot more on the Int Space Station Space station assembled from modules in Earth orbit largely by the U.S. and Russia, with assistance and components from a multinational consortium. The project, which began as a U.S. effort, was long delayed by funding and technical problems. Originally called Freedom in the 1980s, it was redesigned in the 1990s to reduce costs and expand international involvement, at which time it was renamed. In-orbit construction started in late 1998 with the launches of a Russian control module and a U.S.-built connecting node, which were linked in orbit by space shuttle astronauts. In mid 2000 a habitat and control-centre module was added, and later in the year the ISS received its first resident crew, comprising two Russians and an American. Other elements were subsequently joined to the station, with the overall plan calling for a complex of laboratories and habitats crossed
