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The International Space Station is seen in June 2008. The International Space Station, one of the most ambitious space projects ever and a key launching board for exploration of the solar system, including Mars and beyond, turns 10 years old Thursday.
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The International Space Station, one of the most ambitious space projects ever and a key launching board for exploration of the solar system, turns 10 years old Thursday.
On Nov 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No 2 carried up by a space shuttle.
The space station has grown into a behemoth outpost 355 km up, home to three people at any given time - soon to be six.
Thanks to the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour, the space station now has five sleep stations, two baths, two kitchens and two mini-gyms. All told, there are nine rooms, three of them full-scale labs.
The United States has financed the bulk of the project, estimated to cost some 100 billion dollars. Fifteen other countries have also contributed, including Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and eleven nations belonging to the European Space Agency.
The space station has traveled 2.1 billion km, orbited Earth more than 57,300 times, hosted 167 people from 15 countries, and served up more than 19,000 meals.
"The ISS is the largest ever experiment in international technological cooperation," said John Logsdon, a historian at the National Air and Space Museum in US.
"I think it's a necessary stepping stone to long-term human activities in new areas of operations," Logsdon said. The station is "off the planet and it's the first step outward -- not an end in itself, but a step along the way."
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(Agencies)
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國際空間站于本周四迎來了它的10歲生日。國際空間站是人類歷史上最偉大的太空工程之一，是人類探索太陽系的重要起點。
1998年11月20日，俄羅斯將國際空間站的第一個組件從哈薩克斯坦發射升空。兩周后，美國宇航局將空間站的第二個組件由航天飛機送入軌道。
經過多年的建設，距地面355公里的空間站現已發展成一個“龐然大物”，目前它可容納三人，不久將擴大至六人。
近日飛抵空間站的“奮進號”航天飛機送來了不少新設施。現在空間站有五個睡眠設施、兩個廁所、兩個廚房和兩個小健身房，總計九個房間，其中三個是實驗室。
此次空間站的裝修工程預計將耗資1000億美元，美國為此提供大部分資金支持，此外，包括俄羅斯、日本、加拿大、巴西和11個歐洲宇航局成員國在內的其它15個國家也為該工程提供了支持。
十年來，國際空間站共運行了21億公里，繞地球運轉57300多次，接待過來自15個國家的167人，提供過1.9萬多次用餐服務。
美國國家航空航天博物館的歷史學家約翰?羅格斯頓說：“國際空間站是國際科學技術合作領域的一項規模空前的實驗。”
“它是人類開辟新領域過程中的一塊墊腳石，”國際空間站“是人類向太空進軍的第一步，它不是終點，而是前進過程中的重要一步。”
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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