The International Space Station is twenty years…

The International Space Station is twenty years old.

The first astronauts on the station were Yuri Gidzenko, Bill Shepherd, and Sergei Krikalev. (NASA via AP)
The first crew went to the space station twenty years ago. (NASA via AP)
The station is bigger now. Many countries send parts. (NASA)
Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy work on the station. (NASA)
Bill Shepherd works aboard the station. (NASA via AP)

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Astronaut Bill Shepherd remembers. He was on the first crew twenty years ago. The station had three cramped, damp rooms then.

Now the Space Station is bigger. He says, “It’s 500 tons of stuff zooming around in space.”

Read More: Today’s Space Station has 12 rooms, six sleeping compartments, and a lookout tower. Astronauts from 19 countries have lived and worked there. They spend most of their time taking care of the station and doing science experiments. Almost all of them say that their favorite thing to do is to look down on Earth. It takes only 90 minutes for the station to circle the globe. They get to see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets each day! A hymn by Folliot S. Pierpoint is one the astronauts might like to sing. “For the beauty of the Earth, For the glory of the skies, For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies, Lord of all to Thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise.”