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Source- This post is based on the article “International Space Station turns 25! Know all about this groundbreaking initiative” published in “The Financial Express” on 20 November 2023.
Why in the News?
The International Space Station has completed 25 years of its journey since the first module launched into orbit in 1998.
What is the International Space Station?
| Specification | Details |
| What is the ISS? | 1. The ISS is the largest modular space station in low Earth orbit. 2. It is the largest human made structure in space, serving as a laboratory for new researches and technological developments and also serves as an observation platform. |
| Launched on | 20 November, 1988 from Kazakhstan |
| Agencies involved | Five space agencies: the United States’ NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, Japan’s JAXA, Europe’s ESA, and Canada’s CSA |
| Orbit | It orbits earth at an average altitude of 400 km and circles the globe every 90-93 minutes at a speed of 28,000 km/h. |
| Construction & Components | 1. The ISS was constructed piece by piece in the orbit. The first module, The Zarya, lifted off in November 1998. 2. The station is divided into two sections: – The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), which is operated by Russia. – The United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is run by the United States and other countries. 3. The ISS consists of pressurised habitation modules, structural trusses, photovoltaic solar arrays, thermal radiators, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. |
| Size | It weighs almost 450 tonnes and covers an area of a football field. |
| Significance | It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, and various other fields needed for future human space exploration. More than 3,000 experiments have been conducted aboard ISS. |
| Notable success | 1. Medical discovery– Research on ISS led to advancements in osteoporosis treatments and understanding muscle atrophy. 2. Dark matter– The most notable ISS experiment is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which is intended to detect dark matter and answer other fundamental questions about our universe. |
| Mission life | It is expected to operate till 2030. |
| India’s mission | 1. India plans to have own space station by 2035 which would weigh 20 tonnes and maintain an orbit of approximately 400 kilometers above the Earth, where astronauts could stay for 15–20 days. 2. NASA and ISRO have agreed to a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024. |
| Other countries mission | China’s Tiangong space station (launched in 2021) is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency in low Earth. |
Note- Russia has announced in 2022 that it has decided to quit the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own space station.
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