November 7 marks a significant moment in ISS history when the first two modules, named Zarya and Unity, were joined together during the STS-88 mission of the space shuttle Endeavour.
The shuttle’s Canadarm robotic arm reached out and grabbed Zarya, which had been in orbit for just over two weeks. It then attached Zarya to the Unity module stored inside Endeavour’s payload bay. The event marked a crucial step in the construction and assembly of the International Space Station.
“How it started vs. how it’s going. Today marks the 25th anniversary of operations on the International Space Station (@ISS). On Dec. 6, 1998, the station’s first two elements- the Unity and Zarya modules-were joined in low Earth orbit.” Nasa said while sharing before and after pictures of the International Space Station.
“The ISS has been visited by 273 people from 21 countries working together to prepare future human explorations for travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” the agency wrote on social media.
Since November 2, 2000, humans have lived and worked continuously on the orbiting laboratory, bringing together international flight crews to perform more than 3,300 research and educational investigations for the benefit of humanity. The ISS has been visited by 273 people from 21 countries working together to prepare future human explorations for travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, the US space agency wrote in an Instagram post.
”View of the space station circa 2000 in the darkness of space. It consists of two cylindrical modules joined at their short ends. The Unity module on the left is slightly more gray than the longer cream-colored Zarya module on the right. A pair of solar panels extend upwards and downwards from Zarya,” Nasa wrote describing the photos it posted.
“The station as seen during a fly-arond by the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. Four pairs of golden solar arrays are on each side, and three different sets of gray radiator panels accordion upward. The entire craft is nearly the size of a football field,” it added.