William Atkins
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:30
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
Later, on July 12, 2000, the third component, Zvezda, was launched and soon joined the International Space Station as its third component.
NASA states,
“The station is a venture of international cooperation among NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and 11 members of the European Space Agency, or ESA: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More than 100,000 people in space agencies and contractor facilities in 37 U.S. states and throughout the world are involved in this endeavor.”
It is truly an “international” space station orbiting around one cooperating-and-peaceful planet of people. (Yes, it sometimes can be done!)
ISS program manager Mike Suffredini states,
“The station's capability and sheer size today are truly amazing. The tremendous technological achievement in orbit is matched only by the cooperation and perseverance of its partners on the ground. We have overcome differences in language, geography and engineering philosophies to succeed."
Ten years after Zarya was flown into space the (earth-based) mass of the ISS is now over 627,000 pounds (284,400 kilograms) and its interior volume is more than 25,000 cubic feet (708 cubic meters).
NASA compares its size to a
“five-bedroom house.”
As of the flight of STS-126 just a few days ago, another 29 construction missions have been launched to the Space Station, two Russian missions and 27 American missions.
Astronauts from
sixteen countries have worked and lived onboard the Space Station, along with five spaceflight participants (wealthy space tourists).
Page three concludes the 10th anniversary story on the ISS.
