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What makes the International Space Station... “international”? You might think that it’s because the ISS travels all the way around the world—among all nations—but that’s not the actual reason.
The International Space Station is in fact an inspiring product of unity—countries from all around the world came together to construct the ISS, and still work together today to maintain and improve it. The ISS was built by Russia, but funded by the United States. Since its initial build, over a dozen countries have contributed to the ISS’s costs and maintenance—and astronauts from all over the world have been in it! Here’s the list of contributing countries from NASA: United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In our exhibit Beyond Spaceship Earth, we show appreciation to this international collaboration by labeling our tiny spacesuits with the flags of some of these countries. We represent Canada, Japan, Russia, and more!
The number of human hands involved in ISS work isn’t the only big number to attribute to the space station. Here are some numbers to note while walking through our own ISS model in Beyond Spaceship Earth...
