ISS space walk. Astronaut Edward Lu performing a space walk outside the International Space Station (ISS) during mission STS-106. Together with his cosmonaut colleague Yuri Malenchenko (not seen), he connected linking cables between the Zvezda and Zarya modules of the ISS. Mission STS-106 was flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis from 8-20 September 2000. It prepared the ISS for the arrival of the first crew in October 2000. 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 and is scheduled for completion in 2004.