Photos: The space station marks a decade aloft

Way back when, the Space Age was essentially a series of sprints in a feverish competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The first satellite in orbit. The first man in space. The first landing on the moon. But starting more than a decade ago, the space race gave way to cooperation between the onetime Cold War foes, along with partners from other nations, in what has become an endurance event: the construction, maintenance, occupation, and operation of the International Space Station.

The first piece of what would become the space station, or ISS -- the Russian-built FGB, also called Zarya -- lifted off from Earth on November 20, 1998. Looking something like a beetle in flight, the Zarya is seen here two weeks later from the approaching space shuttle Endeavour, which would deliver the second piece, the Unity module.