The International Space Station (ISS) is a combined effort primarily of the United States (NASA), Russia (Russian Federal Space Agency), Japan (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Canada (Canadian Space Agency), and European Union (European Space Agency). In all, sixteen countries help to make the Space Station international in nature.

NASA plans to finish the ISS in 2010, the year it retires its Space Shuttle fleet and its Space Transportation System (STS) program. After that, it will cost about $1.5 billion a year to operate the ISS. NASA hopes to open up about 50% of the U.S. section of the Station to outside private and public agencies, such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

However, NASA plans not to charge any of these partners for use of its orbiting space facility. Such organizations would only pay for the cost of developing their own projects, including hardware and personnel.

Other organizations that have shown interest in the proposal by NASA include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Commerce (DoC), Department of Energy (DoE), National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Pentagon.

The United States owns the U.S. laboratory Destiny, which is already installed on the ISS. It also has access to about 50% of the experimental space on ESA’s Columbus laboratory (scheduled to be launched for ISS later in 2007) and Japan’s Kibo laboratory (to be installed on ISS in 2008).

The Space Station would be ideal for the use of private and public organizations that need to perform microgravity experiments and other such unique experiments that require a weightless condition, as is present on the Space Station.

The orbiting laboratory makes one orbit around the Earth in approximately 91 minutes, with an average speed of 17,240 miles (27,744 kilometers) per hour, completing about 15.7 orbits each day. It varies in altitude above the Earth’s surface from about 173 to 187 nautical miles (320 to 347 kilometers).

NASA is hoping that private companies will have developed spacecraft that can travel to the Space Station by 2011 so they can also contribute to the use of the Station. About $500 million has already been granted to two private organizations to build spacecraft. Other companies have signed agreements with NASA for future endeavors in space.

NASA contends that it has changed its purpose for the Space Station, now primarily using it for medical and equipment research on how to adapt the human body and various space equipment and hardware to long-duration missions to the Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, and other faraway places.

NASA is expecting the International Space Station to remain fully operational through the year 2020. The NASA website for the ISS is: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/.

Information about the current ISS Expedition 15 crew, consisting of one U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts, can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html.

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