ISS program

ISS program

In late 1991 - early 1992, Russian heads of space organizations invited American colleagues to unite efforts in the implementation of space programs. In mid-1992, NPO Energia developed a program for creating the next generation of the manned space station Mir-2. But Russia did not have enough money for its construction. When Clinton’s administration came to power, the issue of collaboration in term of orbital stations was discussed. In March 1993 during negotiations between directions of Energia and Boeing companies in Seattle, the principal possibility of creating the International Space Station (ISS) using elements of unrealized Mir-2 and Freedom programs was discussed for the first time.

On 2 September, 1993 Prime Minister of Russia V.S. Chernomyrdin and U.S. Vice President A. Gore signed the Joint Statement on Cooperation in Space, specifying creation of a joint space station ISS and a series of long-duration flights of the U.S. astronauts to the Mir station.

The International Space Station (ISS) - the manned space station, used as a multipurpose space research facility. ISS - is joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. Sixteen countries are inivolved: Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, USA, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan.

 

            The construction of the ISS began on 20 November, 1998 with the launch of the Functional Cargo Block Zarya. Now, the station consists of the following units:

ELC - an ExPRESS logistics carrier is an unpressurized attached payload platform for the ISS. It comprises four unpressurized platforms fixed at trusses 3 and 4. An ELC provides scientists with a platform and infrastructure for implementation of scientific experiments in vacuum. The platforms provide data processing and transmission of the results of experiments on high-speed channels towards the station.

The first long-term expedition to the ISS began on 31 October, 2000. The crew comprised William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergey Krikalev. During the 142 days space flight Expedition 1 crew performed wide scope of operations on activation and equipping of the ISS systems, service maintenance operations, and deployment of primary and auxiliary equipment. Service operations for two Progress cargo transfer vehicle were performed. Joint operation program with three visiting crews onboard space shuttle was performed. As a result, station was equipped with P6 truss, Destiny module, more than twenty tons of cargo and equipment were delivered onboard the station for crew life support and further station development. Wide scientific research and experiment program was successfully performed.

International nature of the ISS project promotes collaborative scientific experiments. The most commonly such cooperation is developed by the European (ESA) and Russian Space Agencies.

ISS – the most frequented orbital station in the history of cosmonautics. On 15 June, 2021 there were 428 visits to the station (there were 137 visits to the Mir station during its existence). In total the ISS was visited by 204 cosmonauts and astronauts (Mir station – by 104). On 1 June, 2021 the station has been continuously occupied for 9545 days, having exceeded the previous record of almost 10 years held on Mir station.

At the beginning of the 2021 the crews of 64 major expeditions and 19 visiting expeditions were trained and then fully performed all planned work programs on the ISS (at the Mir station for the entire 15-year program 28 and 25 expeditions were carried out, respectively). At the Mir station 78 spacewalks were performed. On the end of 2009 at the ISS 60 spacewalks were performed.