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Steven Siselof, public affairs representative at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, said this marks a major milestone in the agency’s history.

“Much has been accomplished during this time. This is certainly a significant milestone, and NASA will definitely commemorate it this November,” Siselof said.

He added, “If you look at the history of human spaceflight, many achievements were made possible thanks to the research and legacy of the space station.”

Construction of the ISS began in November 1998. Representatives from 16 countries, including Russia, the US, France, Japan, Germany, and the UK, participated. On November 2, 2000, the first long-duration mission to the ISS was launched. The crew commander was American astronaut William Shepherd, and the team included Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergey Krikalev.

A global initiative, the ISS has hosted over 280 people from 23 countries and been visited by various international and commercial spacecraft. The unique microgravity lab has enabled more than 4,000 experiments by over 5,000 researchers from more than 110 countries. The station also supports the growth of a commercial market for research, technology development, and crew and cargo transport in low Earth orbit.