Happy 20th, International Space Station!

[demmiblue]

'An Entirely New Way Of Thinking': The ISS Celebrates 20 Years in Space

For two minutes, NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao could see nothing but blue-marbled Earth swirling above his head. "Surreal" is how he described the moment. Chiao was in the middle of a lengthy spacewalk to assemble part of the International Space Station, an orbiting laboratory the likes of which had never been seen before.

Today (Nov. 20) marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the station's first component, made possible by the contribution of hundreds of engineers, space shuttle astronauts like Chiao, international support and the crews who continue launching up to this day. It has been continuously occupied since Nov. 2, 2000.

As we reflect on what the space station has afforded humanity — diplomacy, progress in human spaceflight and discoveries in the life sciences — we also have to wonder what the space lab's future holds. [Astronauts Snap Amazing Last Glances of Space Station For 20th Anniversary (Gallery)]

The International Space Station, or ISS, pushed NASA into "an entirely new way of thinking," Gary Oleson, a station engineer, told Space.com. Oleson worked as a member of NASA's Space Station Program Office from 1988 to 1993; at first doing the cost side of systems engineering, and then as a principal systems engineer liaison, where he focused on the project's logistics and maintenance.

"We normally think of a spacecraft as being a spacecraft," Oleson said. "But it turned out that the International Space Station, during the assembly, was not, from an engineering point of view, one spacecraft. It was at one time 19 different spacecraft, because every time you went up and added a new element, you had a different spacecraft. It had a different mass; it had a different reliability."

https://www.space.com/42493-international-space-station-20-anniversary.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[hunter]

1. It's always a thrill to see it passing overhead.

Watch the International Space Station pass overhead from several thousand worldwide locations. It is the third brightest object in the sky and easy to spot if you know when to look up.

https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/