|
|
International Space
Station (ISS) - A City in Space
(The detailed components of ISS, please see the PDF picture.)
International
Partners:
The International Space Station is the largest scientific cooperative program in history,
drawing on the resources and scientific expertise of 16 nations:
United States - NASA
Canada - CSA
Participating ESA
members
Japan - NASDA
Russia - PKA
Brazil - INPE
ISS will provide living quarters and science labs for long-term stays by up to seven astronauts. In building, operating, and performing research on the station, humanity will garner essential experience for future travels beyond Earth orbit.
ISS
 |
 |
 |
| Inside ISS | Russian Service Module | Russian Service Module |
 |
 |
 |
| US Lab. Module | US Lab. Module | US Lab. Module |
 |
 |
 |
| Japanese Lab. Module | Inside ISS | X-38 Test Flight |
ISS Assembly: A Construction Site in Orbit
This construction site is 250 miles up - in the airless space, where conditions alternate hourly between freezing and searing. The construction workers are astronauts, the cranes are a new generation of space robotics and the skyscraper taking shape is the ISS.
To assemble the 1-million pound ISS,
Earth orbit will become a day-to-day construction site for 5 years beginning in 1998.
Astronauts will perform more spacewalks in those years than have been conducted since
space flight began, more than twice as many.
More than 100 different components will be launched on about 45 space flights - using
three different types of rockets.
From 1998 to 2004, a total of 34 Space Shuttle missions are scheduled to do the assemble work. Approximately 960 clock hours of spacewalks will be performed.
The space workers will be assisted by an "inch-worming" robotic arm; a two-fingered "Canada hand;" and even a free-flying robotic "eye" that may be used to circle and inspect the station.
(To see the detailed assembly plan of ISS, please click here.
Or to view it in the PDF document from NASA)
First Crew On The ISS:
In January 2000, an international crew of
three will begin living aboard the ISS, starting a permanent human presence aboard the
outpost. The crew has been in training for the mission since late 1996 and includes ISS
Commander Bill Shepherd, a U.S. astronaut; Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, a Russian
cosmonaut; and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, also a Russian cosmonaut.
The first crew will spend three months aboard the ISS. When they arrive, the station will
consist of three modules: the Russian Service Module, which will serve as living quarters
and onboard control center for the early station; the U.S.-funded and Russian-built Zarya,
a module that provides supplementary power and propulsion functions; and the U.S.-built
Node 1, a connecting module that provides the attachment points for future U.S. segments.
The crew's mission will be a flight test of the new station as they assist with critical
assembly activities from onboard. During their stay, three Space Shuttle assembly missions
will dock, expanding the station by delivering the first truss-based U.S. solar arrays,
the U.S. Laboratory Module and the station's primary robotic arm, built by Canada. The
crew will be launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazahkstan. They will return at the end of their mission aboard the Space Shuttle on
assembly flight 6A, the mission that delivers the robotic arm. They will be relieved by a
new crew of three that will be launched on the shuttle on flight 6The Soyuz spacecraft the
first crew rides to orbit will remain docked with the station, providing an emergency
return to Earth for crew members if needed. The Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station
will be changed out with a fresh spacecraft about each six months to maintain the
emergency crew return capability.
Science and Research:
Major areas of research:
Home / Global Shopping / World Travel / World Trade /
World Invest / Services / Contact Us /
E-Commerce Newsletter
/ 21st Century
Magazine /
21st Century Cinema
Copyright (C) 1996-1999 by 21st Century Electronic Publishing 
