International Space Station. It is a 400-tonne structure, consisting of several dozen modules with an internal volume of over 900 cubic meters, which is home to six space explorers. The ISS is not only the largest structure ever created by man in space, but also a true symbol of international cooperation. But this colossus did not appear from scratch - to create it, it took over 30 launches.
It all started with the Zarya module, delivered into orbit by the Proton carrier rocket in November 1998.
Two weeks later, the Unity module took off aboard the shuttle Endeavor.
The Endeavor crew docked two modules, which became the main ones for the future ISS.
The third element of the station was the Zvezda residential module, launched in the summer of 2000. Interestingly, Zvezda was originally designed as a replacement for the base module of the Mir orbital station (AKA Mir 2). But the reality that followed after the collapse of the USSR made its own adjustments, and this module became the heart of the ISS, which, in general, is also not bad, because only after its installation it became possible to send long-term expeditions to the station.
The first crew went to the ISS in October 2000. Since then, the station has been continuously inhabited for over 13 years.
In the same autumn of 2000, the ISS was visited by several shuttles, which mounted a power module with the first set of solar panels.
In the winter of 2001, the ISS was replenished with the Destiny laboratory module, delivered into orbit by the Atlantis shuttle. Destiny was docked to the Unity module.
The main assembly of the station was carried out by shuttles. In 2001-2002, they delivered external storage platforms to the ISS.
The manipulator arm "Canadarm2".
Airlocks "Quest" and "Pier".
And most importantly, the elements of the truss structures, which were used to store cargo outside the station, install radiators, new solar panels and other equipment. The total length of the farms to date reaches 109 meters.
2003 year. Due to the disaster of the space shuttle Columbia, work on the assembly of the ISS has been suspended for almost three to three years.
2005 year. Finally, shuttles return to space and station construction resumes
The shuttles are bringing new truss elements into orbit.
With their help, new sets of solar batteries are being installed on the ISS, which makes it possible to increase its power supply.
In the fall of 2007, the ISS is replenished with the Harmony module (it docks with the Destiny module), which in the future will become a connecting node for two research laboratories: the European Columbus and the Japanese Kibo.
In 2008, Columbus is delivered into orbit by a shuttle and docks with Harmony (the lower left module at the bottom of the station).
March 2009. The shuttle Discovery delivers the final fourth set of solar arrays into orbit. Now the station is operating at full capacity and can receive a permanent crew of 6 people.
In 2009, the station is being replenished with the Russian Poisk module.
In addition, the assembly of the Japanese "Kibo" begins (the module consists of three components).
February 2010. The "Tranquility" module is added to the "Unity" module.
The famous "Dome", in turn, joins the "Calm".
It is so good to make observations from it.
Summer 2011 - shuttles retire.
But before that, they tried to deliver to the ISS as much equipment and equipment as possible, including robots specially trained to kill all humans.
Fortunately, by the time the shuttles retire, the assembly of the ISS is almost complete.
But still not completely. It is planned that in 2015 the Russian laboratory module "Science" will be launched, which will replace the "Pirs".
In addition, it is possible that the experimental inflatable module Bigelow, which is now being created by Bigelow Aerospace, will be docked to the ISS. If successful, it will become the first space station module built by a private company.
However, there is nothing surprising in this - the private Dragon truck in 2012 already flew to the ISS, and why not private modules appear? Although, of course, it is obvious that it will still be a long time before private companies can create structures similar to the ISS.
Until this happens, it is planned that the ISS will operate in orbit until at least 2024 - although I personally hope that in reality this period will be much longer. Yet, too much human effort has been put into this project to be shut down due to immediate economy rather than scientific reasons. And even more so, I sincerely hope that no political squabbles will affect the fate of this unique building.
Exactly 20 years ago, on November 20, 1998, the construction of the International Space Station began, today it is the largest extraterrestrial laboratory, where astronauts from different countries of the world work.
Little-known fact: the history of the station dates back to the revolutionary events of the fall of 1993. The Vice President of the United States and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia announced on September 2 of that year about the implementation of the "truly international space station" project.
And on October 4, when tanks were shooting at the White House, a meeting of representatives of the Russian Space Agency was held in Moscow,
“We found a significant decrease in gray matter in the temporal cortex, the maximum decrease in volume was 3.3%. As for the white matter of the brain, it is also characterized by a decrease in volume, - told Gazeta.Ru the head of the department of sensorimotor physiology of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, Ph.D. Elena Tomilovskaya. "After six months, gray matter levels return to about preflight levels."
In another Russian experiment, Test, at the height of the ISS, bacteria were found that live in the Barents Sea and the island of Madagascar. Also found DNA of plant genomes, archaea and fungi.
After the US abandoned the Space Shuttle program, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft remained the only means of delivering people to the ISS.
The situation should change at the end of 2019, when the United States plans to begin flights of its own manned spacecraft.
Today, cargo and products are delivered to the ISS by the American Cygnus and Dragon, the Japanese HTV and the Russian Progress.
Practice has shown that the operation of the ISS is highly dependent on the rhythm of launches from the Earth and their failure-free operation. So, the disaster of the American shuttle Columbia
in 2003 forced to interrupt shuttle flights, which led to the reduction of the station's crew to two people.
And the recent accident of the Soyuz-FG manned rocket temporarily called into question the possibility of supplying the station with the Soyuz missiles. However, the reasons have been sorted out, and the next crew will leave for the ISS on December 3.
The main question is related to the fate of the ISS after 2024, until which the current agreements of the participating countries are valid. "The technical condition of the ISS allows it to be operated until 2028-2030," said a representative of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation.
“There is a discussion on extending the operation of the station until 2028. I think it can definitely serve until 2028, and then the tests will show, ”said Sergei Krikalev, director for manned space programs of the Ros-Space state corporation. Meanwhile, there are calls in the United States to abandon participation in the project after 2024 and even hand over the American part of the ISS to private individuals.
The International Space Station (ISS), the successor to the Soviet Mir station, celebrates its 10th anniversary since its inception. The agreement on the creation of the ISS was signed on January 29, 1998 in Washington by representatives of Canada, the governments of the member states of the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan, Russia and the United States.
Work on the International Space Station began in 1993.
On March 15, 1993, the General Director of the RCA Yu.N. Koptev and general designer of NPO ENERGIA Yu.P. Semenov turned to the head of NASA D. Goldin with a proposal to create an International Space Station.
On September 2, 1993, the chairman of the government of the Russian Federation V.S. Chernomyrdin and US Vice President A. Gore signed a Joint Statement on Cooperation in Space, which, among other things, provides for the creation of a joint station. In its development, the RSA and NASA developed and on November 1, 1993 signed the "Detailed Work Plan for the International Space Station". This made it possible in June 1994 to sign a contract between NASA and RSA "On supplies and services for the Mir station and the International Space Station".
Taking into account individual changes at the joint meetings of the Russian and American sides in 1994, the ISS had the following structure and organization of work:
In addition to Russia and the USA, Canada, Japan and the countries of European cooperation are involved in the creation of the station;
The station will consist of 2 integrated segments (Russian and American) and will be assembled in orbit gradually from separate modules.
Construction of the ISS in near-earth orbit began on November 20, 1998 with the launch of the Zarya functional cargo block.
Already on December 7, 1998, the American connecting module "Unity", delivered into orbit by the shuttle "Endeavor", was docked to it.
On December 10, the hatches to the new station were first opened. The first to enter it were the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and the American astronaut Robert Kabana.
On July 26, 2000, the Zvezda service module was added to the ISS, which at the stage of the station's deployment became its base unit, the main place for the crew to live and work.
In November 2000, the crew of the first long-term expedition arrived on the ISS: William Shepherd (commander), Yuri Gidzenko (pilot) and Sergei Krikalev (flight engineer). Since then, the station has been permanently inhabited.
During the station's deployment, 15 main expeditions and 13 visiting crews visited the ISS. Currently, the crew of Expedition 16 is at the station - the first female ISS commander is American, Peggy Whitson, ISS flight engineers, Russian Yuri Malenchenko, and American Daniel Tani.
Under a separate agreement with ESA, six European astronauts flew to the ISS: Claudie Haignere (France) in 2001, Roberto Vittori (Italy) in 2002 and 2005, Franca de Winna (Belgium) in 2002, Pedro Duque (Spain) in 2003, André Kuijpers (Netherlands) in 2004.
A new page in the commercial use of space was opened after the flights to the Russian segment of the ISS by the first space tourists - American Denis Tito (in 2001) and South African Mark Shuttleworth (in 2002). For the first time, the station was visited by non-professional cosmonauts.
In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan announced the start of work on the creation of an American space station.
In 1988 the projected station was named "Freedom" ("Freedom"). At the time, it was a joint project between the US, ESA, Canada and Japan. A large-sized controlled station was planned, the modules of which would be delivered in turn into orbit by the Shuttle spacecraft. But by the beginning of the 1990s, it became clear that the cost of developing the project was too high and only international cooperation would make it possible to create such a station. The USSR, which already had experience in creating and launching into orbit the Salyut orbital stations, as well as the Mir station, planned to create the Mir-2 station in the early 1990s, but due to economic difficulties the project was suspended.
On June 17, 1992, Russia and the United States signed an agreement on cooperation in space exploration. In accordance with it, the Russian Space Agency and NASA have developed a joint Mir-Shuttle program. This program included flights of American reusable Space Shuttle spacecraft to the Russian space station Mir, the inclusion of Russian cosmonauts in the crews of American shuttles and American astronauts in the crews of the Soyuz spacecraft and the Mir station.
In the course of the implementation of the Mir-Shuttle program, the idea of \u200b\u200bcombining national programs for creating orbital stations was born.
In March 1993, the general director of the RSA Yuri Koptev and the general designer of NPO Energia, Yuri Semyonov, proposed to the head of NASA Daniel Goldin to create the International Space Station.
In 1993, many politicians in the United States were against the construction of a space station. In June 1993, the US Congress discussed a proposal to abandon the creation of the International Space Station. This proposal was not adopted by a margin of only one vote: 215 votes for rejection, 216 votes for the construction of the station.
On September 2, 1993, US Vice President Albert Gore and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin announced a new project for a "truly international space station." From that moment on, the official name of the station became "International Space Station", although the unofficial one - the "Alpha" space station was also used in parallel.
Stages of ISS creation:
Manned Orbital Multipurpose Space Research Complex
The International Space Station (ISS), created for scientific research in space. Construction began in 1998 and is carried out in cooperation with the aerospace agencies of Russia, the United States, Japan, Canada, Brazil and the European Union, and is scheduled to be completed by 2013. When completed, the plant will weigh approximately 400 tonnes. The ISS revolves around the Earth at an altitude of about 340 kilometers, making 16 revolutions per day. The station will roughly operate in orbit until 2016-2020.
Ten years after the first space flight made by Yuri Gagarin, in April 1971, the world's first space orbital station Salyut-1 was launched into orbit. Long-term habitable stations (DOS) were essential for scientific research. Their creation was a necessary stage in the preparation of future human flights to other planets. During the implementation of the Salyut program from 1971 to 1986, the USSR had the opportunity to test the main architectural elements of space stations and subsequently use them in the project of a new long-term orbital station - Mir.
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to a reduction in funding for the space program, so Russia alone could not only build a new orbital station, but also keep the Mir station operational. Then the Americans had practically no experience in creating DOS. In 1993, US Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed an agreement on space cooperation "World - Shuttle". The Americans agreed to finance the construction of the last two modules of the Mir station: Spectrum and Priroda. In addition, the United States from 1994 to 1998 made 11 flights to Mir. The agreement also provided for the creation of a joint project - the International Space Station (ISS). In addition to the Federal Space Agency of Russia (Roscosmos) and the US National Aerospace Agency (NASA), the Japanese Aerospace Research Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA, which includes 17 participating countries), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) took part in the project. as well as the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB). India and China expressed their interest in participating in the ISS project. On January 28, 1998, the final agreement was signed in Washington to start construction of the ISS.
The ISS has a modular structure: its different segments were created by the efforts of the countries participating in the project and have their own specific function: research, residential, or are used as storage facilities. Some of the modules, for example the American modules of the Unity series, are jumpers or are used for docking with transport ships. When completed, the ISS will consist of 14 main modules with a total volume of 1,000 cubic meters; a crew of 6 or 7 people will be permanently aboard the station.
The weight of the ISS after the completion of its construction, according to plans, will be over 400 tons. The station is roughly the size of a football field. In the starry sky, it can be observed with the naked eye - sometimes the station is the brightest celestial body after the Sun and the Moon.
The ISS revolves around the Earth at an altitude of about 340 kilometers, making 16 revolutions a day around it. Scientific experiments are carried out on board the station in the following areas:
- Research of new medical methods of therapy and diagnostics and means of life support in zero gravity
- Research in the field of biology, the functioning of living organisms in outer space under the influence of solar radiation
- Experiments on the study of the earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays, cosmic dust and dark matter
- Study of the properties of matter, including superconductivity.
The first module of the station - Zarya (weighs 19.323 tons) - was launched into orbit by the Proton-K launch vehicle on November 20, 1998. This module was used at an early stage of the station's construction as a source of electricity, also for attitude control and temperature maintenance. Subsequently, these functions were transferred to other modules, and Zarya began to be used as a warehouse.
The Zvezda module is the main living module of the station; it contains life support and control systems for the station. Russian transport ships Soyuz and Progress dock to it. The module was launched into orbit with a two-year delay by the Proton-K launch vehicle on July 12, 2000 and docked on July 26 with the Zorya and previously launched into orbit by the American docking module Unity-1.
The Pirs docking module (weighs 3,480 tons) was launched into orbit in September 2001, and is used for docking of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, as well as for spacewalk. In November 2009, the Search module, almost identical to Pirs, docked with the station.
Russia plans to dock a Multifunctional Laboratory Module (MLM) to the station, after launching in 2012 it should become the station's largest laboratory module weighing more than 20 tons.
The ISS already has laboratory modules from the USA (Destiny), ESA (Columbus) and Japan (Kibo). They and the main nodal segments Harmony, Quest and Unnity were launched into orbit by shuttles.
Over the first 10 years of operation, the ISS was visited by more than 200 people from 28 expeditions, which is a record for space stations (only 104 people visited Mir). The ISS was the first example of the commercialization of space flight. Roskosmos, together with Space Adventures, sent space tourists into orbit for the first time. In addition, within the framework of the contract for the purchase of Russian weapons by Malaysia, Roscosmos in 2007 organized a flight to the ISS of the first Malaysian cosmonaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
Among the most serious accidents on the ISS is the crash of the landing of the space shuttle Columbia (Columbia, Columbia) on February 1, 2003. Although Columbia did not dock with the ISS, conducting an independent exploration mission, this disaster led to the fact that shuttle flights were terminated and only resumed in July 2005. This delayed the completion of the station's construction and made the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft the only means of delivering cosmonauts and cargo to the station. In addition, smoke occurred in the Russian segment of the station in 2006, and the failure of computers in the Russian and American segments was recorded in 2001 and twice in 2007. In the fall of 2007, the crew of the station was busy fixing a break in the solar battery that happened during its installation.
By agreement, each project participant owns its segments on the ISS. Russia owns the Zvezda and Pirs modules, Japan - the Kibo module, ESA - the Columbus module. The solar panels, which, after completion of the station's construction, will generate 110 kilowatts per hour, and the rest of the modules belong to NASA.
The completion of the ISS construction is scheduled for 2013. Thanks to the new equipment delivered on board the ISS by the Endeavor shuttle expedition in November 2008, the station's crew will be increased in 2009 from 3 to 6 people. It was originally planned that the ISS station should work in orbit until 2010, in 2008 another date was called - 2016 or 2020. According to experts, the ISS, unlike the Mir station, will not be drowned in the ocean; it is planned to use it as a base for assembling interplanetary spacecraft. Despite the fact that NASA spoke in favor of a reduction in funding for the station, the head of the agency, Michael Griffin, promised to fulfill all US obligations to complete its construction. However, after the war in South Ossetia, many experts, including Griffin, stated that the cooling of relations between Russia and the United States could lead to the fact that Roskosmos would cease cooperation with NASA and the Americans would be deprived of the opportunity to send their expeditions to the station. In 2010, US President Barack Obama announced the end of funding for the Constellation program, which was supposed to replace the shuttles. In July 2011, the Atlantis shuttle made its last flight, after which the Americans had to rely indefinitely on Russian, European and Japanese colleagues to deliver cargo and astronauts to the station. In May 2012, the Dragon, owned by the private American company SpaceX, docked with the ISS for the first time.