ISS Expedition 1

On November 2, 2000, Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev floated into the International Space Station and switched on the lights. Expedition 1 began a streak of continuous human presence in orbit that has never been broken — every day since, at least one person has been living off the Earth.

The first crew spent 136 days bringing the young station to life: activating life support, unpacking supply ships, and hosting three shuttle assembly missions that added the American laboratory Destiny and the station’s giant solar arrays. The ISS grew into the largest structure ever built in space and a permanent laboratory for the science of living beyond Earth.