Abstract
We report the structural properties of three-dimensional complex plasmas observed recently on board the International Space Station. A local order analysis reveals spatially resolved features that occur during the crystallization of a plasma crystal. The plasma crystal consists of hcp and fcc phases with a small fraction of bcc-like clusters. It has been shown that the observed anisotropy of the system of microparticles is due to presence of the hcp phase. Molecular-dynamics simulations of crystallization of a system of particles, interacting via Debye-Hückel (Yukawa) potential, reproduces the observed local order remarkably well.