William Atkins
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:30
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the launching of the first component of the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and the world is celebrating the Zarya (“Dawn”) milestone on November 20, 2008.
The U.S. space agency announced the ISS birthday celebration through its November 17, 2008 media release entitled “
Nations around the world mark 10th anniversary of International Space Station.”
On November 20, 1998, ten years ago, the Zarya (which means “dawn” in Russian), was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
It was lifted up to a 250-mile (400-kilometer) orbit around planet Earth.
Zarya is also called the Functional Cargo Block (FCB). The FCB provided electrical power, propulsion, and storage capacity to the fledgling Space Station.
The Russians named the first component to the ISS Zarya because the project was the “dawn” of a new era in international space cooperation between many nations of the world. (We should all have more “zaryas” on and about Earth.)
NASA comments on the beginning of the orbiting research laboratory, the International Space Station (ISS):
“The launch began an international construction project of unprecedented complexity and sophistication.”
On December 4, 1998, Zarya was joined in space by the U.S. Unity Module, which was flown into space aboard the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-88), the first U.S. shuttle mission to the ISS. Three spacewalks later the two components were joined as one, now truly an international endeavor in space.
Read page two to learn more about the ISS and its ten years in space.
