In 1984, President Reagan gave NASA the go-ahead to develop a space station. Four decades later, ISS is an established and extremely successful research centre in Earth orbit, now visited by hundreds of astronauts. The history of this project is a complex weave of powerful

threads - political, diplomatic, financial and technological - but none is more fascinating than the story of its design. Published in 2016, this book provided the first comprehensive and fully researched account of ISS's conception, development and assembly in orbit. It begins in the late-1970s just before the Space Shuttle's first flight when NASA chose a space station as the Shuttle's main mission objective and began design studies. It continues through the 1980s as ISS's evolving design underwent major changes and upheavals and the 1990s when its partners agreed on a final design and manufactured its parts. It continues into the 2000s with the station's assembly in orbit, mission by mission and piece by piece. It ends with an overview of ISS's activities since its completion in 2010.

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