Q: What is the International Space Station?

The International Space Station (ISS) is a facility in outer space 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface, with the United States and Russia as its main partners.

The International Space Station, an international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries, launched in 1998 and has been transformed into a complex roughly the size of a football field, with eight miles of electrical wiring, acres of solar panels and three high-tech laboratories.

The station consists of 16 habitable units, six of which were provided by Russia, eight from the United States, and the rest of the units from Japan and the European Space Agency.