International Space Station (ISS)

The International Space Station is a large, permanently manned spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) used for research purposes. Since 1998, national aeronautics programs in various countries have sent their astronauts to work and perform research on ISS. The main countries responsible for the initial construction and continued maintenance of ISS include:
  • Canada (Canadian Space Agency, CSA)
  • Japan (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA)
  • Russia (Russian Aviation and Space Agency, also referred to as Roskosmos, RKA)
  • European countries (European Space Agency, ESA)
  • United States (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA).
While these countries are the primary players at ISS, others have contracts to use and participate in certain ISS activities and missions. Both Brazil and Italy are among these countries.
 
 
ISS Facts
Here are some fun facts about the International Space Station (ISS):
  • can be viewed with the naked eye (i.e. You don't need a telescope to see ISS from Earth.)
  • has an approximate speed of nearly 28,000 km per hour
  • orbits the Earth between 15 and 16 times each day
  • resides between 350 to 460 km above the Earth's surface.

Brief History of ISS

The ISS, as we know it today, is actually the combination of various space stations individual countries planned to build on their own. The main plans for ISS came from:
  • ESA's Columbus and Kibo
  • JAXA's Experiment Module
  • NASA's Space Station Freedom
  • RKA's Mir 2.
During the Cold War with the Soviet Union (a period that lasted from the 1940s through the early 1990s), the United States was in a race with the Soviet Union to be the first to explore space. As a result, the United States' Space Station Freedom was meant to counter and overshadow the Soviet Union's Mir. However, with a loss of funding during the 1980s, plans for the Space Station Freedom were stalled.
 
When the space race and the Cold War with the Soviet Union finally ended at the end of the 1980s, the United States began talks with various countries to try to build an international space station, rather than a series of smaller, nationally owned and operated space stations. By 1993, NASA, RKA and ESA agreed to build the Space Station Alpha, the foundations for our modern-day International Space Station.
 
While the original specifications for ISS planned for a crew capacity of seven people within a 508-square-foot ship, budget constraints forced cutbacks to a three-person crew within a 353-square-foot facility. However, because ISS is built in stages, final plans include an expansion that will give ISS a six-person crew capacity.

Building ISS

Like buildings on Earth, the International Space Station has been and continues to be built in phases. Assembling each part of ISS showcases an enormous aerospace engineering feat. After the first portion of ISS (referred to as Zarya Functional Cargo Block) was launched in November 1998, the first crew docked to this facility about two years later in November 2000. The crew, which traveled in the Expedition 1, consisted of U.S. astronaut William Shepherd and Russian astronauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev.
 
Currently, ISS is equipped to permanently house a three-person crew. While construction on the International Space Station is still under way, at the end of 2007, the ISS officially became the largest space station in orbit.
 
By 2010, various space agencies should be finished building ISS. It is projected to continue operating in space through 2016.
 
Resource
 
NASA (updated February 7, 2008). NASA: International Space Station. Retrieved February 7, 2008 from the NASA Web site.