The early days of ISS: Read an exclusive excerpt from Outposts on the Frontier

Jay Chladek writes about how language, protocols, living quarters and habits evolved, in the weeks after Expedition 1 docked at the International Space Station.

On 31 October 2000 the first ISS crew was ready to lift off from Baikonur aboard Soyuz TM- 31. As with other important firsts, the launch would take place from the same R-7 rocket launchpad that had been used by Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok flight. The commander of ISS Expedition 1 was American Bill Shepherd. Accompanying him would be Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, who were both Mir veterans. Compared to the body of experience both Russian