DAVID ADAMS takes a look at some of the facts and figures behind the International Space Station (ISS)…
The International Space Station recently marked 15 years of continuous human habitation. We take a deeper look…
PICTURE: NASA
• The International Space Station (ISS) – the largest artificial body in orbit around the Earth – is a microgravity laboratory made up of a series of 13 interconnected “rooms” which make it larger in size than a six bedroom house.
• The ISS is a joint project of five space agencies, US space agency NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
• Assembly of the station began in November, 1998, when Russia launched the Zarya control module. Further modules were added later. Power to the station is provided by more than an acre of solar panels.
• The ISS orbits the Earth at a speed of 17,150mph at a distance of 240 miles from the surface.
• It has been continually occupied since 2nd November, 2000, when three astronauts stepped aboard. More than 220 astronauts, cosmonauts and fee-paying tourists from 17 different countries have visited the station since then. The current crew of six are known as Expedition 45.
• Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka holds the record for the longest time spent aboard the station – 879 days. Among the crew currently on board is US astronaut Scott Kelly who will spent 522 days in the station on a mission to help scientists understand the long-term effects of space on the human body.
• Crew members spend about 35 each week conducting research in various disciplines (22 investigations were conducted by during Expedition 1/191 will be conducted during Expeditions 45 and 46). Some of the standout developments have included the creation of water purification technology now used around the world and a range of medical advances including the development of Eye Tracking Device equipment to help carry our corrective laser surgery.
• There have been some 189 spacewalks out of the ISS since 1998. The 190th was scheduled to take place on 6th November.
• Since the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle fleet in 2011, personnel have flown to the space station has been via Soyuz rockets flown by Russian crews.
• The ISS is not the first space station to orbit the Earth – in the 1970s NASA has Skylab while the USSR/Russia also had a series of stations that ended with MIR. The current space station is about four times as large as MIR and five times as large as Skylab.
• The ISS is one of the brightest objects in the night sky. To find out where it is at any time and when you can see it, check out http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
Sources: NASA, ESA, NASA infographic
