The International Space Station (French: Station spacee internationale, abbreviated SSI; English: International Space Station, abbreviated ISS; Russian: International Space Station, abbreviated ISS) is a research complex operating in low Earth orbit. The ninth manned space station in history. The main function of the space station is to serve as a research laboratory in microgravity. The fields of research include biology, physics, astronomy, geography, meteorology, etc. It is currently operated by six countries or regions, including NASA, Russian Federal Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Agency Research, the Canadian Space Agency, the Brazilian Space Agency and the European Space Agency (members of the United Kingdom[4], Ireland, Portugal, Austria and Finland do not participate in the ISS program, Greece and Luxembourg joined the ESA after the start of the program.[5]). China once announced its intention to participate in the construction of the International Space Station, but due to many factors, it was eventually excluded [6][7]. So far, astronauts from many countries have landed on the International Space Station for missions, but they are all U.S. or Russian-led space programs, including seven space tourists. [original request]

From November 15, 1998, when the first part of the International Space Station's cargo compartment for the Dawn function was launched, to June 2010, the space station circled the Earth 66,000 times and is expected to operate until 2015 or later [8]. The International Space Station originally planned to complete its mission after 2020, de-orbit and fall directly into the sea [9]. Spacecraft responsible for transportation between the International Space Station and earth include the Soyuz, Progress, autonomous transport vehicle, H-II transport vehicle, Dragon spacecraft, Spacecraft Discovery, Spacecraft Endeavour, and etc. Currently, the International Space Station is under construction and can accommodate up to six crew members, and most of the experimental facilities have also been put into operation. Due to factors such as atmospheric drag and restarts, the actual orbital altitude of the International Space Station often shifts.

The original proposed name for the International Space Station was "Space Station Alpha" (Alpha), but it was opposed by Russia on the grounds that the name implied that the International Space Station was the first space station in human history, and the Soviet Union, and then Russia successively successfully operated 8 space stations. Although the name of the International Space Station was not adopted by the originally proposed spacecraft Alfa", the radio call sign of the space station is "Alpha". This call sign was determined when the first crew members of the space station boarded the station. Gordon, chairman of the bureau, set up the space station's temporary call sign "Alpha", which was later used and became the official call sign for the space station.

The forerunner of the International Space Station program was NASA's Freedom Space Station, which was an integral part of the US Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s. On December 1, 1987, NASA announced that Boeing, General Electric, McDonnell Douglas, and Lodean Propulsion had received orders to help build the Freedom Space Station. Under the Bush administration, the Star Wars program was shelved, and the Freedom space station also shut down. In 1993, then-President Clinton officially closed the Freedom space station program. After the end of the Cold War, at the initiative of US Vice President Al Gore, the Liberty space station was revived, NASA began contacting the Russian Federal Space Agency to discuss the idea of ​​​​cooperating to create a space station.

On November 15, 1998, the functional cargo compartment of Dawn, the first component of the International Space Station, entered its planned orbit. In December of the same year, the US-made Unity node module was launched. and is associated with Dawn. In July 2000, the Zodiac Service Module connected to the space station. On November 2, 2000, the first astronauts landed at the International Space Station.

Most components of the International Space Station are delivered by the NASA Space Shuttle. Since most of the components have completed their construction tasks on the ground, astronauts only need to perform a few operations in space to connect the components. space station body. After the International Space Station is fully completed, according to its project, a total of 7 astronauts will be able to work and live simultaneously.

The International Space Station's budget has far exceeded NASA's original estimate, and its construction schedule is behind schedule. The main reason is that after the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, NASA grounded all space shuttles. During the two and a half years that the Space Shuttle was grounded, transportation of personnel and materials to the space station was entirely dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and research activities on the space station were compressed to the maximum. According to the plan, construction of the space station will resume in 2006 after the return of the shuttle to space. After falling, NASA once again grounded all space shuttles, which led to another delay in the construction schedule of the International Space Station.

On November 20, 2006, events aboard the International Space Station were broadcast live for the first time on Earth.broadcast in high definition and broadcast on a large screen TV in Times Square in New York. This is the first time people are watching live HDTV from space. The main character of the live broadcast is Michael Lopez-Alegria, commander of the 14th long-term expedition of the International Space Station, and the operator is Thomas Reiter, the accompanying engineer at the station. This live broadcast system is called the Space Video Gateway, and the resolution of the live broadcast can be up to 6 times that of conventional analog television. [10]

On January 31, 2007, two American astronauts Lopez-Alegria and Sunit Williams, as part of the 14th long-term expedition of the International Space Station, successfully went into space for more than 7 hours. They connected the cooling circuit for the Destiny Experimental Module from the temporary system to the permanent system, did some wiring work to allow the docked Space Shuttle to connect to and use power from the new solar panels on the space station, and placed a light shield reflector. .. and the heat shield are thrown away and then the heat sink is recycled on a set of old solar panels [11]. At 8:38 a.m. ET on February 4, the two astronauts again exited the cabin for a spacewalk lasting about 7 hours. They connected another Destiny Experiment Module cooling circuit from a temporary system to a permanent system to clean up an abandoned ammonia water chiller [12]. On February 8, the two astronauts completed their third spacewalk of 6 hours and 40 minutes, removed and discarded two large masks outside the space station, and installed several cargo transport aircraft accessories[13]. On February 22, Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria, ISS flight engineers, performed a planned spacewalk lasting more than six hours, repairing the docking process on the ISS. The non-retractable antenna of the M-58 spacecraft [14]. ].

Remove 23 mission photos

October 30, 2007[15] As astronauts from the US Space Shuttle Discovery were assembling solar antenna panels for the International Space Station, the panels were broken. NASA scientists checked damaged parts of the panels to see why.

In March 2009, the NASA website began broadcasting live images of the International Space Station in real time. When space station employees are sleeping or not working, Internet users around the world can watch live video from the space station. via the Internet[16].

On May 31, 2012, the world's first commercial spacecraft to visit the ISS successfully returned to Earth. US$100 million contract to launch 12 cargo spacecraft to the ISS.

1. Chris Pete. ISS—Orbit Data. heavens-above.com. June 18, 2010 [June 18, 2010].

2. Stephen Seitzeloff. NASA has given way to using an alpha name for the station. space.com. February 1, 2001 [January 18, 2009].

3. STS-132 Press Kit (PDF), NASA, May 7, 2010 [June 19, 2010].

4. International Space Station welcomes first British astronaut, Asia Pacific Daily, May 21, 2013

5. European Space Agency http://www.esa.int/esaHS/partstates.html

6. China wants to participate in the space station. CNN. Associated Press. October 16, 2007 [March 20, 2008]. (Original content archived March 14, 2008).

7. James Oberg. China takes aim at the space station. MSNBC. October 26, 2001 [January 30, 2009].

8. Charlie Bolden Statement, NASA Budget Press Conference (PDF) (press release), NASA February 1, 2010 [February 1, 2010].

9. SPACE STATION WILL BE FLOODED AFTER 2020. Discovery News. 07/27/2011[07/28/2011].

10. International Space Station completes first HD live broadcast, November 17, 2006, Xinhuanet

11. Zhang Zhongxia, International Space Station astronaut, performs spacewalk, Xinhuanet

12. Zhang Zhongxia, Space Station Astronaut, Performs Second Spacewalk, Xinhuanet

13. Zhang Zhongxia, space station astronauts set spacewalk record, Xinhuanet

14. Liu Yang, Zhang Zhongxia, space station astronauts went into outer space to repair the failed antenna of the Progress spacecraft, Xinhuanet

15. The solar panels of the International Space Station are damaged, which may affect the power consumption of the space station

16. Xiaowen. The NASA website has begun streaming video from the International Space Station online. science web. March 14, 2009 [February 12, 2016] (Chinese (simplified)‎).