The history of the International Space Station (ISS) goes back to the 1980s when NASA was going to launch a modular space station called Freedom to challenge the Soviet space station Mir (meaning ‘peace’ or ‘world’). Yet instead, by the early 1990s, it became a collaborative project, connecting not only NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, but also the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Marked by numerous discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, and remaining the symbol of how humans can transcend politics on Earth, the ISS was settled for retirement by splintering into a thousand pieces before crashing into the Pacific Ocean somewhere around 2030.
More info: NASA
