Planning for the International Space Station took decades. Astronauts even practiced an in-space rehearsal rescue outside the space shuttle—in case one was ever needed.
Building the ISS was like building a racecar as it zoomed around the track. The station orbits Earth once every 90 minutes. Each new module was brought up from Earth on a space shuttle or other spacecraft and then carefully attached without upsetting the station’s orbit.
About the size of a football field, the ISS took 13 years to complete and cost $100 billion.