ISS construction. Destiny laboratory module being added to the International Space Station (ISS) by the remote manipulator system (RMS) of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Destiny was lifted out of Atlantis's cargo bay (lower left) to be attached to the ISS Unity module (lower right). The 8.5- metre-long Destiny is the first of six ISS laboratories. Destiny was installed on 10th February 2001 during mission STS-98. The ISS is a joint effort between NASA, the European Space Agency, the Russian space agency, Canada, Japan and Brazil. It orbits at an altitude of 350 kilometres. It has been manned since late 2000 and is scheduled for completion in 2004.