ISS represents the Post Cold War era as two poles of the Cold War; the United States and USSR were far from cooperating in any aspect. Russia, however, volunteered to cooperate at the beginning of the new term. The move resulted in cooperation in space, and now the new move will end the symbolic two-decade orbital partnership.
The first version of the ISS was launched in 1998, and astronauts from a range of western countries and Russia have lived there since 2000, the most prolonged constant human presence in low Earth orbit in history.
