International Space Station (ISS)-1

•ISS is a habitable artificial satellite - the single largest man-made structure in low earth orbit. Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998.

•It circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day.

•The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada) but its ownership and use has been established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.

•It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.

•Continuous presence at ISS has resulted in the longest continuous human presence in the low earth orbit.

•It is expected to operate until 2030.