<P> The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), christened Kibō ("hope") in 1999, is Japan's first manned spacecraft . Kibō consists of a pressurised laboratory dedicated to advanced technology experiments, education and art, a cargo bay, an unpressurised pallet for vacuum experiments in space, a robotic arm, and interorbital communication system . While the proposed space station was redesigned many times around Kibō, the only significant change has been the placement of its ballistic shielding . Its final position at the front of the station increases the risk of damage from debris . The ESA and NASA, by contrast, both reduced the size of their laboratories over the course of the programme . The Japanese National Space Development Agency (NASDA) formally submitted the JEM proposal to NASA in March 1986, and by 1990 design work began . Constructed in the Tobishima Plant of Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Kibō made its way to the Tsukuba Space Center and in 2003 Kibō was shipped, first by river barge and then by ship, to America . In 2010, Kibō won the Good Design Award, a 61 - year - old consumer and industry award which identifies the best of Japanese craftsmanship . </P> <P> In the 1980s Japan was working on the HOPE - X spaceplane, intended to launch on the H - II rocket . Depending on the configuration of the rocket, it would have a mass of between 10 and 20 tonnes, and be able to carry both crew and cargo . It would launch vertically and land horizontally . The programme was terminated by JAXA in 2003 after scale mockup testing . </P> <P> In 1987 the ESA approved the Columbus laboratory . 1988, Europe was working on several space projects including the Columbus module, the Man - Tended Free Flyer (MTFF), and the Polar Platform (PPF), supported by the Ariane 5 rocket and the Hermes spaceplane . </P> <P> The Columbus Man - Tended Free Flyer (MTFF) was an ESA programme to develop a space station that could be used for a variety of microgravity experiments while serving ESA's needs for an autonomous manned space platform . The MTFF would be a space station without long term life support, visited by short term crews to replenish and maintain experiments in a Zero - G environment free of vibrations caused by a permanent crew . The project was cancelled after budget constraints caused by German reunification . The Hermes spaceplane is comparable in function to the American and Soviet space shuttles, with a smaller crew of up to 6 (reduced to 3 with ejection seats after the Challenger disaster) and substantially smaller cargo capacity, 4,550 kg, comparable to ISS unmanned cargo ships . </P>

Who came up with the idea of the international space station