Atlantis & ISS - Launch, Experiments, Return (Part2/2)

The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in outer space, the on-orbit construction of which began in 1998. The space station is in a Low Earth Orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye; it orbits at an altitude of approximately 350 km (190 nautical miles) above the surface of the Earth and travels at an average speed of 27,700 kilometres (17,210 mi) per hour, completing 15.7 orbits per day.

The space station is a joint project among the space agencies of the United States (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and eleven European countries (ESA). The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB, Brazil) participates through a separate contract with NASA. The Italian Space Agency similarly has separate contracts for various activities not done in the framework of ESA's ISS works (where Italy also fully participates). China has reportedly expressed interest in the project, especially if it was able to work with the RKA, although as of 2008[update] it is not involved ... The assembly of the International Space Station is a major aerospace engineering endeavour, which began in November 1998. As of July 2008 the station is approximately 76% complete.

The first segment of the ISS, the Zarya FGB, was launched into orbit 20 November 1998 on a Russian Proton rocket, and was followed two weeks later by the first of three 'node' modules, Unity, launched aboard STS-88. This bare 2-module core of the ISS remained unmanned for the next one and a half years, until in July 2000 the Russian module Zvezda was added, allowing a maximum crew of three astronauts or cosmonauts to be on the ISS permanently — the first resident crew, Expedition 1, was sent that November. The year 2000 also saw the arrival of two segments of the station's Integrated Truss Structure, the Z1 and P6 truss, together providing the embryonic station with communications, guidance, electrical grounding and power via a pair of solar array wings.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Atlantis
• ISS
• spce .spce walk
• space expedition