The International Space Station (ISS), a marvel of modern science and international collaboration, became operational in space after several years of construction. This space station, Earth, serves as a unique laboratory for scientific research in an environment unaffected by gravity. The ISS, a project involving space agencies from the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada, symbolizes an unprecedented era of peaceful cooperation in space exploration. On November 2, 2000, the ISS was first inhabited by astronauts and been continuously occupied, making it one of the longest human habitats outside of Earth. The space station travels at an average of 420 kilometers (about 260 miles) above Earth and is easily visible from the Earth's surface as a bright moving object in the night sky.