View from the cupola of the International Space Station above the South Pacific Ocean

© NAS

View from the cupola of the International Space Station

Pictured here is the view from the cupola of the International Space Station, showing the vast South Pacific Ocean. The station was designed between 1984 and 1993. By the late 1980s, construction of its components was underway across the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe, with Russia joining later.

In 1998, the first module, Zarya, launched into orbit. The assembly of Zarya with the Unity module was conducted by the crew of the STS-88 mission, which included American astronauts Jerry L. Ross and James H. Newman. Piece by piece, astronauts assembled it—like a cosmic LEGO set—until it became the sprawling, high-tech hub it is today. Since November 2, 2000, the ISS has been home to astronauts nonstop—meaning humans have been living in space for over two decades! The ISS has a pressurised volume of about 900 cubic metres and a mass of over 400,00 kilograms, making it the heaviest human-made object ever to orbit Earth.