Orbiting a quarter of a thousand miles above the Earth is the most beautiful piece of space engineering humanity has ever create

A technically elegant orbiting machine, a laboratory, a workshop, and a home for hundreds of astronauts from all different backgrounds, it is one of the most ambitious and pioneering collaborative space projects of the last century. With 12 million parts and exceeding the length and width of the largest category of football fields, the International Space Station (ISS) is the biggest object ever constructed in space, and also the most durable spacecraft in history to date.

Ever since the time when there were less than sixty days before the end of the 20th Century, not a single day has passed without a continuous human presence in space. From November 2000 to the present, over two decades has elapsed since the space station began round-the-clock human operations. The launch of the first component took place in 1998. No manned spacecraft or orbiting satellite has ever been continuously used for this long before.

The ISS is seen as an icon in not only what humanity can achieve when working together peacefully, but also the enormous benefits and innovations it has provided the world in fields such as manufacturing, material science, biology and chemistry, technology development, physiology and astronomy. The architecture and materials are a one-of-a-kind design, never before used on this scale and scope on previous space stations; its durability and safety record remain unmatched.

Manufacturing and assembling such a colossal space station inherently brought challenges that were overcome. Hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers, architects, contractors, management staff and astronauts from all corners on the globe were involved in the project, in all shapes and sizes in the magnitude of tasks.

This book will dive deep into the depths of the International Space Station: right down to the history, design, manufacturing, assembly