Sharing with his social media followers, Kelly wrote, “Clear skies over much of the U.S. today”.
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It took a collaboration of several space agencies and about $100 billion (some argue 0 billion after accounting for inflation) to launch and assemble all the pieces of the station.
“For 15 years, humanity’s reach has extended beyond Earth’s atmosphere”. This knowledge is critical as NASA looks toward human missions deeper into the solar system, including to and from Mars, which could last 500 days or longer. Among this group are space tourists from the US and Canada, as well as South Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon.
Humankind is marking an off-the-planet pinnacle Monday: the 15th anniversary of continuous residency at the worldwide Space Station. As the one-year crew, Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-18M in March 2016.
The young space station at the time consisted of just three modules including the Zarya module, the Zvezda service module and the Unity module.
Expedition 1 arrived at the orbiting laboratory on November 2, 2000, carrying commander William Shepherd of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko of Roscosmos.
The ISS has been home to 220 people from 17 countries. More space tourism could also be in the cards for the ISS.
According to Dr. John Holdren, director of White House Office of Science and Technology, the ISS has afforded American researchers the opportunity to conduct studies relating to life and physical sciences that will allow NASA to send more astronauts into space. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui-who marked 100 days in space this weekend-talked about how astronauts from around the globe are able to work together aboard the ISS.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden called today’s milestone “a remarkable moment 5,478 days in the making”.
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“People on the ground sometimes fail to hear each other, to see each other. Here in space, this is impossible”, he said through a translator.
