As of this week, humans have spent 15 continuous years living off the Earth thanks to NASA and the orbiting International Space Station. The first crew moved onto the ISS in November 2000, with a total of 220 people living on board in the intervening years, a group representing 17 countries. The US and Russia have sent the most representatives, followed by Canada and Japan. The station started off as three rooms, blooming to 13 with the current station boasting a mass of almost one million pounds.
According to NASA, more than 1,700 experiments have been carried out on the ISS, with 189 spacewalks. Construction of the station began in 1998, with NASA hoping to keep the structure in operation until 2024. "It [ISS] has taught us about what's possible when tens of thousands of people across 17 countries collaborate to advance shared goals," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.
Here are 50 pictures of the ISS across the years:
50 Pictures Of The ISS
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The International Space Station, September 2000. (credit:Encyclopaedia Britannica via Getty Images)
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The historic first mission to permanently man the International Space Station is in final preparations before take-off, October 2000. (credit:Scott Peterson via Getty Images)
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This picture of the distant International Space Station, December 2000. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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The Space Shuttle Endeavour approaches the International Space Station, December 2000. (credit:Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria tethered to Unity on the International Space Station, October 2000. (credit:Getty Images via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station, October 2000. (credit:Getty Images via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station is backdropped against California topography following undocking with the shuttle Atlantis, February 2001. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)
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Astronauts and cosmonauts share a meal, 2001. (credit:Encyclopaedia Britannica via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station is visible from the Space Shuttle Endearvour, December 2002. (credit:Getty Images via Getty Images)
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Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko exercising on the International Space Station, August 2003.
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Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka rests under the Zarya module of the International space station as astronaut Mike Fincke rests upside down under the Strela boom during a televised spacewalk Wednesday, June 30, 2004. The spacewalking pair successfully repaired a circuit breaker on one of the four stations' gyroscopes.(AP Photo/NASA TV) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A full view of the International Space Station as seen from onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery following the undocking of the two spacecraft, August 2005. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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A photo taken from the space shuttle Discovery shows the International Space Station just prior to docking, July 2005. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Photograph of the International Space Station taken from the shuttle Discovery, 2005. (credit:Universal History Archive via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station is docked with Space Shuttle Discovery, July 2005 . (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station is seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery after undocking from the station, December 2006. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Mission specialist Christer Fuglesang waves to the camera as he participates in the second of three planned space walks during construction on the International Space Station, December 2006. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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The docked Soyuz 13 and Progress 22 resupply vehicle are seen attached to the International Space Station, December 2006. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Fuglesang makes the second of three planned space walks during construction on the International Space Station, December 2006. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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IN SPACE - SEPTEMBER 12: In this handout photo provided by NASA, Astronaut Joseph R. Tanner, mission specialist, translates along the station hardware, on 'installation day' on the International Space Station on Sept. 12, 2006. The Atlantis and Expedition 13 crews worked on attaching the P3/P4 truss during the first of three scheduled spacewalks by STS-115 shuttle crew members. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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US Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and the world's first female space tourist Anoushen Ansari smile while they pose for a picture after a press conference in Baikonur, September 2006. (credit:MAXIM MARMUR via Getty Images)
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A group of technicians attends at the packing of a Jules Verne's manuscript ready to go on the space, October 2007. (credit:GIUSEPPE CACACE via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Rick Mastracchio participates in the mission's third planned session of extravehicular activity as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station, August 2007. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Queen Elizabeth ll sees live images from the International Space Station on a monitor at mission control when she visits the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, May 2007. (credit:Anwar Hussein via Getty Images)
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The International Space Station along with the docked space shuttle Endeavour can be seen streaking across the skies of southern England, August 2007. (credit:Jamie Cooper via Getty Images)
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Hurricane Ike covers Cuba, September 2008. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
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The crew of space shuttle Atlantis, February 2008. (credit:STAN HONDA via Getty Images)
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Staffers explore a space suit of South Korea's first astronaut, Yi So-Yeon, 29, before she blasts off for the International Space Station, April 2008. (credit:ALEXANDER NEMENOV via Getty Images)
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The space shuttle Endeavour crew walks out on their way to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, November 2008. (credit:STAN HONDA via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Tim Kopra starts a series of five spacewalk sessions, July 2009. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Joseph Acaba participates in the mission's third scheduled EVA session, March 2009. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Richard Arnold participates in the mission's third scheduled EVA session, March 2009. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
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NASA astronaut Dr Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the enviable position of being able to gaze down on the world from 220 miles up, thanks to the viewing window on board the International Space Station Caldwell Dyson was part of the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station between April 4 and September 25 this year. She initially lifted off on April 2, 2010 from the Baikonur spaceport aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule (Soyuz TMA-18) to join the Expedition 23 crew aboard the ISS. After taking her 176 days duty as part of the Expedition 24 crew, she returned to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-18 landing unit, and together with commander Aleksandr Skvortsov and flight engineer Mikhail Korniyenko, Dyson landed in Kazakhstan on September 25th. In a television interview on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, she said she is the first astronaut to be born after Apollo 11. She is also the lead vocalist for the all-astronaut band Max Q.
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International Space Station crew members at the Star City space centre outside Moscow, September 2010. (credit:ALEXANDER NEMENOV via Getty Images)
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In this photo taken with a fisheye lens and with long time exposure, people lwatchthe launch of the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with the Soyuz TMA-03M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Netherlands' astronaut Andre Kuipers. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Astronaut Garrett Reisman participates in the mission's first EVA session, May 2010. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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A photograph of a lake captured through the Cupola on the International Space Station by one of the Expedition 30 crew members, December 2011. (credit:Barcroft via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa smiles as he is carried in a chair to the medical tent just minutes after he landed in a remote area Kazakhstan, November 2011. (credit:Handout via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Mike Fossum waits at an International Space Station's pressurized mating adapter docked to the space shuttle Atlantis, July 2011. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Mike Fossum attached to the robotic arm takes a picture during a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, July 2011. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Expedition 27 crew members are pictured in the Harmony node of the International Space Station shortly after space shuttle Endeavour and the space station docked in space, May 2011. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Specialist help the International Space Station crew member Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to get up after checking his space suit at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, December 2012. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Pope Benedict XVI waves to the 12 astronauts aboard the International Space Station, May 2011. (credit:OSSERVATORE ROMANO via Getty Images)
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Astronaut Aki Hoshide participates in the mission's third EVA session outside the International Space Station, September 2012. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)
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Image captured from the International Space Station and posted on the Twitter account of astronaut Scott Kelly shows a tropical cyclone off the coast of Oman, October 2015. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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International Space station commander Chris Hadfield sings David Bowie's Space Oddity.
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Astronaut Alexander Gerst captured this image of Super typhoon Neoguri from the International Space Station, July 2014.
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Christmas aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, December 2015.
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Astronaut Scott Kelly shared this image of the Earth from the International Space Station, October 2015.
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In this Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 image made from video provided by NASA, astronauts Scott Kelly, left, and Kjell Lindgren, aboard the International Space Station, speak to actors from the movie "The Martian." On Tuesday, Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko clocked in for their 171st day aboard the International Space Station since arriving on March 27. The two are scheduled to spend 342 days in space. (NASA via AP) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)