The most visited spacecraft in the history of space travel is the International Space Station (ISS).
The International Space Station is a joint project between 14 countries: USA, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency which includes Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, France, Sweden, Switzerland (Brazil and the United Kingdom were among the founding members).
The International Space Station has been in continuous use since November 20th, 1998. Member nations have endorsed the joint venture until 2024, possibly extending the use of the ISS until 2028.
The ISS is operated by: the Russian segment with its mission control center in Korolev; the USA segment at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space center in Houston; the European segment with its control center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany; and Japan’s Experiment Module “Kibo” from Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Tsukuba.
The first resident crew which included William Shepherd (USA – NASA), pilot and commander of Soyuz TM 31, Yuri Gidzenko (Russia – Roscosmos) and flight engineer Sergei Krikalev (Russia – Roscosmos) docked at ISS on November 2, 2000 in a Russian rocket Soyuz TM – 31.
