Thales Alenia Space celebrates the 20th anniversary of the ISS

The first crew of the ISS took over on November 2, 2000, two years after construction of the International Space Station began.

Thales Alenia Space celebrates the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS), the largest scientific collaboration in history for peaceful purposes.

The first crew of the ISS took up their duties on November 2, 2000, two years after construction began. The first module was launched on November 20, 1998.

Bringing together the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and European Space Agency countries, this program led to the construction of the largest spacecraft ever, a permanent human outpost occupying an area the size of a football field, with a volume living space of over 1,200 cubic meters, of which over 40% provided by Thales Alenia Space.

The company has fully supplied half of the pressurized volume on the International Space Station, including Nodes 2 and 3, the Permanent Multifunctional Module, the Multipurpose Logistics Modules, the Dome and the Columbus laboratory structure, along with the cargo modules for the ships. refueling station and NanoRacks’ Bishop commercial airlock facility.

Since November 2000, 241 people from 19 countries have visited the ISS, conducting more than 2,500 medical, chemical, physical and biological experiments under microgravity conditions.

It took more than 50 missions of all types of launch vehicles to assemble the 100 main parts of this technological tour de force, one of the most complex and impressive structures ever built.

Above all, it meant putting aside the lingering tensions of the Cold War and the space race to bring the best technologies from around the world into orbit.

From December 1998 to March 2019, for example, approximately 78,514 kg of research equipment was transferred to the station and 23,559 kg was sent back to earth.