Just like the science and engineering that make it work, ownership of the International Space Station (ISS) is complicated. Ownership is shared between the different partner organisations, namely the US, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency. However, rather than owning a percentage of the whole ISS, different partners each own different parts of it.
One side of the station is entirely owned by Russia, while the other side is controlled by the United States, but includes modules belonging to the European Space Agency and Japan. Agreements allow partners to use sections of the space station that don’t belong to them.
