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The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility in low Earth orbit, consisting of four pressurized modules and room for three astronauts. It is a joint project between five space agencies and is expected to be completed by 2010 with a total cost of $100 billion. The ISS has had 124 visitors, including five paying space tourists. Six additional modules will be launched by 2010, and most of the station is expected to remain operational until 2020.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a low Earth orbit research facility, orbiting at an altitude of between 320 km (199 mi) and 345 km (214 mi). As of May 2007, the International Space Station consists of four small rooms, known as “pressurized modules” in technical jargon, and has room capacity for three astronauts. The station is expected to be completed by 2010 and will include a total of 10 pressurized modules, along with a Soyuz spacecraft that serves as a lifeboat and a large unpressurized truss structure for the solar arrays.
Currently, the International Space Station is the only permanently manned structure in orbit. It was created to allow five space agencies to share the high costs of launching and maintaining a facility in orbit. The five agencies participating in the ISS project are NASA (United States), Roskosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada) and ESA (European Union). When the station is completed in 2010, the entire project will cost approximately $100 billion or more. The International Space Station has been in orbit since 1998 but occupied only since 2000. It has already had 124 distinct visitors, including five paying space tourists, who each paid US$20 million to visit the station.
The International Space Station’s first module, Zarya (meaning “dawn” in Russian), was launched in 1998 and orbited autonomously for almost two years due to delays in the construction of Zvezda (“star” in Russian), a module service area with space for two astronauts. Zvezda also contains a shower and toilet, exercise equipment, a galley for food preparation, and is the largest module on the ISS, by a small margin. Shortly after Zarya was launched, the American Unity Module was attached to it. True to its name, Unity functions as a connecting node between other modules, and is sometimes referred to as Node 1. The final module currently in orbit is the US-built Destiny Laboratory Module, where scientific research is conducted.
Six additional modules will be launched from the end of 2007 to 2010: Node 2, Columbus Laboratory Module (European), Japanese Experiment Module, Multipurpose Laboratory Module (Russian), Node 3 and Docking Cargo Module. The goal is for the space station to be completed by 2010. Most modules have an expected operational life of 15 years, so the first module may need to be replaced or scrapped in 2013, but most of the station is expected to remain operational until 2020.
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