Washington: The International Space Station (ISS) with humans on board turned 15 on November 2 and NASA is celebrating the event with a delightful musical video.
The video details interesting facts about the orbiting laboratory station in twanging verse.
It also explains the station's logistics. Over 200 people have lived on the space station so far with nearly 1,700 science experiments being conducted onboard the lab.
Celebrating this, Dr John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said that the ISS is a unique laboratory that has enabled groundbreaking research in the life and physical sciences and has provided a test bed for the technologies that will allow NASA to once again send astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit.
"The international partnership that built and maintains the station is a shining example, moreover, of what humanity can accomplish when we work together in peace,” he said in a statement.
"I congratulate all of the men and women at NASA and around the world who have worked so hard to keep the International Space Station operational these past 15 years. Everyone involved can be proud of this incredible achievement,” he added.
The ISS, which US President Barack Obama has extended through 2024, is a testament to the ingenuity and boundless imagination of the human spirit.
"The work being done on board is an essential part of NASA’s journey to Mars, which will bring American astronauts to the Red Planet in the 2030s,” noted NASA administrator Charles Bolden.
"Over the weekend, I called NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is currently halfway through his one-year mission aboard the International Space Station, to congratulate him on setting the American records for both cumulative and continuous days in space,” he added.
"I believe the station should be considered the blueprint for peaceful global cooperation. For more than a decade and a half, it has taught us about what’s possible when tens of thousands of people across 15 countries collaborate to advance shared goals,” Bolden explained.
For 15 years, humanity’s reach has extended beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Since 2000, human beings have been living continuously aboard the space station, where they have been working off-the-Earth for the benefit of Earth, advancing scientific knowledge, demonstrating new technologies and making research breakthroughs.
According to NASA officials, the ISS could probably last until 2028.