NASA couldn't have staged it any better: 10 people in orbit for the 10th anniversary of the world's most elaborate and expensive housing project, the international space station. On Nov. 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No. 2 carried up by a space shuttle. Astronauts and cosmonauts moved in two years later, and the rest, as they say, is history. The space station has grown into a behemoth outpost 220 miles (355 kilometers) up, home to three people at any given time – soon to be six. Thanks to the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour, the space station now has five sleep stations, two baths, two kitchens and two mini-gyms. All told, there are nine rooms, three of them full-scale labs. Three-quarters complete, the total mass is 627,000 pounds (284,000 kilograms). NASA says it's about the size of a five-bedroom house. Some other fascinating factoids: The space station has traveled 1.3 billion miles (2.1 billion kilometers), orbited Earth more than 57,300 times, hosted 167 people from 15 countries, and served up more than 19,000 meals. The space station has taken longer for NASA and its international partners to build, cost more money and produced less science than originally envisioned. But that hasn't spoiled the celebrations going on all over the world – and off. For the record, the linked Endeavour and space station sailed past the 10-year mark at 0640 GMT Thursday while the astronauts slept. Mission Control marked the occasion by showing video of the first rocket's launch in 1998. “After 10 years, we wish the international space station a happy birthday and we hope to see many, many more,” Endeavour commander Christopher Ferguson said in a taped message from the orbiting complex. To date, it's taken 80 rocket launchings from Florida, Kazakhstan and French Guyana (the launching site for the European Space Agency's cargo carrier) to make and staff the space station. The price tag, from start to finish, is often quoted at $100 billion. That includes money spent not only by the United States and Russia, but also Canada, Japan and the 18
