International
Space Station
By Anthony Fitch
The International Space Station may look
large in this picture, but it has come from humble
beginnings. The very first module named Zayra
was launched by the Russian Space Agency
(Roscosmos), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
aboard a Russian Proton rocket in 1998.
Following the placement of the first module in
orbit, NASA launched the American Unity node
aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-88
mission. The joining of those two modules has
kicked off cooperation not really seen before.
The major partners of the ISS include: NASA,
Roscosomos, JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada),
and ESA (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,
Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom).
The ISS required more than 115 space flights
to construct utilizing five different launch
vehicles. It has a footprint about the size of
an American football field, including the endzones. The 15 pressurized modules have an
internal pressurized volume of 32,333 cubic feet
and a habitable volume of 13,696 cubic feet.
This roughly translates to a living space larger
than a five bedroom house, or larger than the
interior of a 747. There is a lot of hardware to
support that much volume. If the ISS was sitting
on Earth instead of in orbit, it would weigh
925,000 pounds. This much space allows over
100 telephone booth sized racks for operating
spacecraft systems and research. In order
to power this facility it has eight solar panels
capable of an output of 75 to 90 kilowatts.
The station is much more than just hardware.
It is normally staffed by a crew of six. At
present, Expedition 35 is currently on board.
They are: Commander Chris Hadfield, and
flight engineers Tom Marshburn, Roman
Romanenko, Chris Cassidy, Alexander Misurkin,
and Pavel Vinogradov. This human presence
in space, on this vehicle, has remained
uninterrupted since October 31, 2000.
If you are out at night and you see a bright star
racing across the sky, what you are likely seeing
is the International Space Station. It stands as
a testament to what mankind can do when
working together toward a common goal. You
can find more information about the ISS at the
link below, as well as ways to be alerted when it
will be visible overhead in your area.
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/ index.html
www.RocketSTEM.org
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