For those who don’t know, the International Space Station (ISS) is an advanced venture in space exploration and engineering made possible by the participation and cooperation of more than sixteen partner nations. The ISS will be the most powerful tool for the next generation’s expeditions and explorations into the known universe. It increases the feasibility of long-term missions and lays out the groundwork for major development of in-orbit production facilities.

The station, which includes half a dozen laboratories and contains more space for research than any spacecraft ever created, is already home to the first permanent crews. The volume of the space station, internally, is about equivalent to the volume of the passenger area of a commercial 747 airliner. The International Space Station first began in 1993, and construction was completed in 2005. The station houses up to six or seven crewmembers at any given time, whose stints of service last from three to six months.

The ISS embodies a new period of innovation for Omega’s long-proven commitment to space exploration. The Omega Speedmaster Professional X-33 is a watch that was developed to NASA’s stringent accuracy requirements, and is to precise that it can detect the minute time differential created by escape velocities and the resulting relativistic time-dilation. It is the official watch of the ISS, and has been sported on the wrists of many of the crewmembers.