International Space Station. Computer artwork showing the International Space Station (ISS) in earth orbit. The ISS, built in stages since 1998, is a collaborative project between the national space agencies of the USA, Canada, Japan, Russia and Europe. It consists of a number of modules, trusses and arrays of solar panels. The ISS operates as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory, with experiments conducted by crew members. Orbiting at an altitude of around 36MB0 kilometres, it has been crewed since 2000, and will remain operational until at least 2020. Since 2011, it has been supplied by Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and various automated transfer vehicles.