The $100 Billion Lab in the Sky
You can’t drive past it or walk through its halls. But it’s the most expensive thing humans have ever built.
What man-made object costs more than any building on Earth? Image credit: Pexels
Orbiting some 250 miles above our heads is the International Space Station (ISS)—a football-field-sized science lab that’s been circling the Earth since 1998.
The total cost? Over $100 billion.
Some estimates, when accounting for research, international cooperation, and ongoing missions, reach as high as $150 billion. That makes the ISS the most expensive object ever constructed—more than any skyscraper, ship, or machine.
But this wasn’t a solo effort. It took 15 nations working together—launch after launch, module after module—to assemble it in orbit. Today, it serves as a powerful symbol of what humans can achieve when we reach for something beyond borders, and far beyond Earth.
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