In response, the Nixon administration cut NASA's budgets and ordered them to focus on a reusable shuttle program. On the other hand, the Soviets opted for unmanned landings on Mars and Venus and beat the Americans to launch the first space station – Salyut 1. Nevertheless, innovation in space began to decline from that moment. The space community faced a double whammy: the collapse of the Soviet Union and the inaction of successive U.S. administrations. The situation improved somewhat during the Clinton administration when construction of the International Space Station (ISS) began. However, apart from the United States, no other major country was involved in the space domain.