First Residents Arrive: International Space Station Opens
American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev docked with the International Space Station on November 2, 2000, becoming its first permanent crew. They stayed 136 days, activating systems, unpacking supplies, and proving that a multinational crew could live and work together in orbit. The ISS had been under construction since 1998, with Russian and American modules launched separately and assembled in space. Expedition 1 established an unbroken human presence in orbit that has continued for over 25 years. The station orbits at 250 miles altitude, circles Earth every 90 minutes, and has been visited by astronauts from 19 countries. It is the most expensive structure ever built, at roughly $150 billion, and the largest artificial object in space, visible to the naked eye at night.
November 2, 2000
26 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on November 2
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Two men in a Boston tavern essentially invented American political infrastructure. Samuel Adams pushed hard for it — not a battle plan, not a declaration, just …
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