The most expensive thing ever made by humans, a tech marvel, cost a whopping $100 billion
When you think of the phrase ‘the most expensive thing ever made', the obvious answers which come to our mind are the Burj Khalifa, the Taj Mahal or perhaps, a jet fighter aircraft. However, you'd be surprised to know that none of these are the right answer. In fact, we are sure you would struggle to come up with the answer if you didn't already know what it is. The most expensive man-made thing in the world surprisingly, does not even exist on the Earth. It is none other than the International Space Station (ISS) and it took more than $100 billion to make. Read on to know more about one of the greatest tech marvels ever.
This accolade was given by the Guinness World Records. Calling the International Space Station the ‘most expensive man-made object, it noted on its website that the cost of the structure was more than $100 billion. Some other sources also note that it actually took more than $150 billion. But why is the ISS so expensive and what makes it a tech marvel? The story is definitely an interesting one.
In the early 1980s, NASA decided to launch a modular space station called Freedom. It was supposed to be the counterpart to the Soviet Salyut and Mir space stations. But as the plan was formed, it was realized that it would be beyond the scope of a single nation to build. As a result, the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as Russian space agency Roscosmos, JAXA from Japan, CSA of Canada also joined in.
On November 20, 1998, the ISS was launched into space. Originally, the purpose of the ISS was to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory while providing transportation, maintenance, and a low Earth orbit staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. While not all of the intended
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