The first U.S.-manufactured element of the
International Space Station is a component called
node 1. Node 1 was launched on
space shuttle mission STS-88 in July 1998.
The first of the scheduled 36 American built
module,
node one has been dubbed
"Unity" as a tribute to the cooperative spirit of the project. Seven major powers are contributing to the station:
United States
Russia
Europe
Japan
Canada
Italy
Brazil