The International Space
Station
In ORBITAL MANEUVERS, the International Space Station becomes a sanctuary for the crew of Endeavour as they struggle to survive the asteroid impact.
The International Space Station was first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address on January 25, 1984. He proposed that it would be built within a decade. Unfortunately, there were many problems that had to be overcome before construction of the station could begin.
In November 1998, the first element of the station, Zarya, was placed in orbit on Russia's heavy lift rocket - Proton. A month later on STS-88, Endeavour brought up the first US component - the Unity Node. The station remained uninhabited for a year and a half until Russia provided the Zvezda module in July of 2000. After this event the station received its first crew, Expedition 1, that following November. The space station is being constructed by a consortium of agencies: NASA in the United States; RKA (Russian Federal Space Agency) in Russia, the Canadian Space Agency - CSA; Japanese Space Agency - JAXA; the European Space Agency - ESA; the Brazilian Space Agency - AEB; and the Italian Space Agency - ASI.
The station's main purpose is as a research laboratory to study the effects of weightlessness on humans as well as to conduct research into life sciences, physical sciences, manufacturing and Earth observation. Work is also being conducted on long duration space flight simulations. Suffering delays because of the Challenger and Columbia accidents, the station is scheduled to be completed by December 2011.
General Space Station Facts:
· Length: Truss - 361 feet (110 m);
Module - 240 feet (70
m)
· Mass of Completed
Station: 925,000
lbs (419,600
kg)
· Power
Generation
from Solar Arrays: 110
kilowatts
· Pressurized
Volume: 43,000 cubic feet (1218
cubic
meters)
· Operational
Altitude: 250 mi (400
km)
· Orbit
Inclination:
51.6º to the
equator
· The
space station is the
largest
manmade object in
space.
Evolution of the International Space Station
(Place mouse over image for assembly information)
© 2010, RC Davison