ISS construction. View from the International Space Station (ISS) of the approaching Space Shuttle Endeavour. In the shuttle's open cargo bay are parts for the ISS. The main purpose of Endeavour's mission (STS-97, 30 November to 11 December 2000) was to attach and unfold the ISS's 73-metre solar arrays. The ISS is a joint effort between NASA, the European Space Agency, the Russian space agency, Canada, Japan and Brazil. It orbits Earth at an altitude of 350 kilometres and will be over 100 metres long when it is completed in 2004. The ISS has been manned since late 2000. Photographed on 2 December by a member of the first ISS crew (Expedition 1 or ISS-01).