INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS)

The International Space Station serves primarily as a research laboratory and is the largest ever launched into orbit. The station offers an advantage over spacecraft such as NASA's Space Shuttle because it is a long-term platform in the space environment, allowing long-duration studies to be performed, both on specific experiments and on the human crews that operate them

International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998, and is scheduled to be complete by 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015.^[update] As of 2009, the ISS is the largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit, larger than any previous space station.