HOUSTON, Texas — Astronauts called down from space on Dec. 6, 2023, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS).
On the same day in 1998, the first two modules of the ISS, called Zarya and Unity, were attached during the STS-88 mission of the space shuttle Endeavor, kicking off the beginning of assembly of the station.
The station's current crew, the seven-member Expedition 70 crew, called down to the Johnson Space Center from the ISS to celebrate the occasion and discuss the achievements of the station over the years with NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana and International Space Station Program Manager Joel Montalbano.
“We want to celebrate today all the people who designed, built, and operate the International Space Station,” said Montalbano as he greeted the Expedition 70 crew on a NASA livestream to commemorate the anniversary.
You can watch the full conversation with the astronauts below:
Montalbano is NASA's sixth station leader since the program began, and Cabana was the commander of Endeavor when the first modules of the station were attached.
After being approved by Pres. Ronald Reagan and Congress in 1984, the ISS was designed from 1984 to 1993. Parts of the station were constructed throughout the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe beginning in the late 1980s, according to NASA's International Space Station website.
The station was assembled in orbit over two phases, said NASA, with construction officially beginning in 1998. New modules have been added as recently as 2021.
All of the participating nations contributed both materials for the station and crewmembers during its assembly. Since its construction, NASA says the ISS has been visited by more than 270 astronauts from various countries.
The ISS is operated by five partner agencies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" of Russia.
On its website, NASA describes the ISS as "the unique blend of unified and diversified goals among the world’s space agencies that will lead to improvements in life on Earth for all people of all nations."
Aboard the ISS, NASA said the Expedition 70 crew continues to conduct a variety of research, including studies on aging, mental health and cognition, as well as continuing ongoing cargo operations.
According to NASA, aging studies conducted by the astronauts are helping researchers understand space-caused accelerated aging symptoms at the molecular and cellular level, and experiments regarding mental health and cognition could help space agencies plan longer human missions farther away from Earth.
The Expedition 70 crew is made up of Commander Andreas Mogesen and Flight Engineers Jasmin Moghbeli, Satoshi Furukawa, Loral O'Hara, Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.
More information about the International Space Station and its crew can be found at this link.
A full history of the ISS can be found at this link.
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