The International Space Station, one of the most ambitious space projects ever and a key launching board for exploration of the solar system, turns 10 years old Thursday.

On Nov 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No 2 carried up by a space shuttle.

The space station has grown into a behemoth outpost 355 km up, home to three people at any given time - soon to be six.

Thanks to the newly arrived shuttle Endeavour, the space station now has five sleep stations, two baths, two kitchens and two mini-gyms. All told, there are nine rooms, three of them full-scale labs.

The United States has financed the bulk of the project, estimated to cost some 100 billion dollars. Fifteen other countries have also contributed, including Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and eleven nations belonging to the European Space Agency.

The space station has traveled 2.1 billion km, orbited Earth more than 57,300 times, hosted 167 people from 15 countries, and served up more than 19,000 meals.

"The ISS is the largest ever experiment in international technological cooperation," said John Logsdon, a historian at the National Air and Space Museum in US.

"I think it's a necessary stepping stone to long-term human activities in new areas of operations," Logsdon said. The station is "off the planet and it's the first step outward -- not an end in itself, but a step along the way."

国际空间站于本周四迎来了它的10岁生日。国际空间站是人类历史上最伟大的太空工程之一，是人类探索太阳系的重要起点。

1998年11月20日，俄罗斯将国际空间站的第一个组件从哈萨克斯坦发射升空。两周后，美国宇航局将空间站的第二个组件由航天飞机送入轨道。

经过多年的建设，距地面355公里的空间站现已发展成一个“庞然大物”，目前它可容纳三人，不久将扩大至六人。

近日飞抵空间站的“奋进号”航天飞机送来了不少新设施。现在空间站有五个睡眠设施、两个厕所、两个厨房和两个小健身房，总计九个房间，其中三个是实验室。

此次空间站的装修工程预计将耗资1000亿美元，美国为此提供大部分资金支持，此外，包括俄罗斯、日本、加拿大、巴西和11个欧洲宇航局成员国在内的其它15个国家也为该工程提供了支持。

十年来，国际空间站共运行了21亿公里，绕地球运转57300多次，接待过来自15个国家的167人，提供过1.9万多次用餐服务。

美国国家航空航天博物馆的历史学家约翰•罗格斯顿说：“国际空间站是国际科学技术合作领域的一项规模空前的实验。”

“它是人类开辟新领域过程中的一块垫脚石，”国际空间站“是人类向太空进军的第一步，它不是终点，而是前进过程中的重要一步。”