Part 4
International Space Station
The first piece of the International Space Station was launched in 1998. The first crew arrived on November 2, 2000. Over time more pieces have been added. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011. It is a scientific laboratory in which an international crew of seven people live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.
The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000. In that time, 222 people from 18 countries have visited. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration, enabling research and technology developments that will benefit human and robotic exploration of destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, including asteroids and Mars
Scott Kelley, American, set the record for the most continuous days in outer space in by spending 342 days (11 months, 3 days) from March 2015 to March 2016.
On December 23, 2004, Present George W Bush signed the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act which provides a basic legal framework for commercial human spaceflight.
This allowed for development of private companies to carry out rocket launches while NASA continues to develop the next stage of space flight.
SpaceX has the most advance program of any of the private companies. Falcon 9 rocket has takes astronauts to the in international space station. The Falcon 9 rocket not only can carry large load into space, it is reusable.