It is about four times as large as the Russian space station Mir and five times as large as the U.S. The space station is approximately the size of a football field: a 460-ton, permanently crewed platform orbiting 250 miles above Earth. It is the result of unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries.
The International Space Station (ISS) took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble.