Today Is...International Space Station Launched

When we are not doing stupid things like making nuclear missiles mankind has made some impressive leaps in the relatively short time we have been on Earth and amongst our very best moments has been the development of Spacecraft although that development only came about as a way to deliver death upon another nations inhabitants but let's paper over that because since the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, we have gone on to send man-made machines to view every Planet in our Solar System, landing on some of them, as well as setting foot on the Moon and launching a Space Station that circles our Earth every 90 minutes.
Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has been speeding at 17,100 mph above our heads and i receive texts from NASA's Spot The Station website to let me know when it is within view in my part of the UK and most nights i see at least one passing but now us sky-watchers have other pieces of technology to look for in the shape of China's Tianhe-1 Space Station or one of Elon Musk's Sky Link satellites.
When NASA mothballed it's space program due to costs everyone turned to Russia to get our astronauts into Space including Britain's very own Tim Peake who spent six months in space before plunging at 17,400 mph towards Earth in a 'special chair' which was not as safe as the chair that i am set in i bet.
While up there, there was live link-ups in which Tim, floating in front of an ISS camera, could speak directly to children themselves in a project called The Cosmic Classroom which gave children the chance of posing questions, the most popular of which seemed to be around how he used the toilet.
With Britain, America and Russia coming together on the International Space Station, it appears after recent events that Space is the only thing that unites us but with each amazing, remarkable and important space mission, it takes us a step closer to leaving this polluted and rapidly warming ball of rock.