Jeff Manber, a space entrepreneur who works on space station projects, said the ISS exemplifies the best and worst of international cooperation between the United States and Russia.

“No one really thought we’d get to 10 years,” said Manber. “In the beginning Russia and America didn’t really understand one another, and it’s hard to believe it’s really been 10 years. We’ve had 200 explorers up there and it’s really taught us, America, a lot about how you work with Russia.”

There is no better example of cooperation between the US and Russia than what is going on in space exploration. NASA and the Russian program rely on one another and work together. Soon the US will be completely dependent on Russian shuttles to go back and forth to the station, once the US shuttles are retired.

Future scientific advances made possible by the station will be great. A permanent facility in space to study a number of theories previously un-testable will bring about breakthroughs.

“Let’s do some really good stuff with it,” said Manber. “I’m working on the station through a company, and we’re excited about what we can do.”

However, most Americans know little about the station and are not aware that there will be a fully functional lab in space for the advancement of science. Manber explained that NASA has done a poor job of marketing the station and its potential.

“We had done a lot within the MIR-Shuttle program, which was the predecessor of the International Space Station,” acknowledged Yury Skursky, Deputy Head of mission control of the Russian segment of the ISS. “We worked hard to provide simultaneous operation of both the MIR orbital station and preparation for the ISS launch. I remember those years as the most interesting period of strenuous work which finally led to this great result. During the link-up there were no hiccups, everything went smoothly.”

Star City has a mockup of the Zvezda module where astronauts and cosmonauts traveling to the ISS come to train. It is in this device that one gets a real sense of the significance of the capsule.

In 1998, two modules of the closed-cycle autonomous life support system – Zarya and Unity – were launched into orbit, but it wasn’t until ten years ago in 2000 that the system was attached and the International Space Station became fit for human habitation.

The Head of the Cosmonaut Training Center and cosmonaut himself Sergey Krikalyov remembers that it was a foundation of sorts for the rest of the station.

“If the module had failed, then the other systems’ work would be pointless since the module consisted largely of life-support systems. The module made it possible for the crew to stay onboard the station. It would be impossible to build the station at the pace it was constructed at without this special part.”

Though the infrastructure was now in place, it was up to the station’s first crew to set everything in motion.

“The first two weeks were critical, since a lot of the systems were being activated for the first time,” recalls Krikalyov. “Some Russian system segments were merged with US systems. Those machines had never seen each other on Earth, and that was the first time they would work together. The responsibility was huge, and that was why the crew had been composed of experienced cosmonauts.”

Ten years on, the ISS is approaching the record for a structure being continuously inhabited in space, an honor currently held by Russia’s MIR project. And while it was originally only supposed to be in service until 2015, the future looks bright for the International Space Station.

“ISS members decided to prolong the station’s use until 2020 and possibly even longer if the technical state of the station is good,” revealed Mikhail Shutikov, Head of the Projecting Department of Space Units of EK Enegria.

This will ensure a continued international presence in space for many more years to come.