Due to what the ISS develops its speed. International Space Station

Cosmonautics Day is coming on April 12th. And of course, it would be wrong to ignore this holiday. Moreover, this year the date will be special, 50 years since the first human flight into space. It was on April 12, 1961 that Yuri Gagarin accomplished his historical feat.

Well, man cannot survive in space without grandiose superstructures. This is exactly what the International Space Station is.

The dimensions of the ISS are small; length - 51 meters, width including trusses - 109 meters, height - 20 meters, weight - 417.3 tons. But I think everyone understands that the uniqueness of this superstructure is not in its size, but in the technologies used to operate the station in outer space. The ISS orbital altitude is 337-351 km above the earth. The orbital speed is 27,700 km/h. This allows the station to complete a full revolution around our planet in 92 minutes. That is, every day, astronauts on the ISS experience 16 sunrises and sunsets, 16 times night follows day. Currently, the ISS crew consists of 6 people, and in general, during its entire operation, the station received 297 visitors (196 different people). The start of operation of the International Space Station is considered to be November 20, 1998. And at the moment (04/09/2011) the station has been in orbit for 4523 days. During this time it has evolved quite a lot. I suggest you verify this by looking at the photo.

ISS, 1999.

ISS, 2000.

ISS, 2002.

ISS, 2005.

ISS, 2006.

ISS, 2009.

ISS, March 2011.

Below is a diagram of the station, from which you can find out the names of the modules and also see the docking locations of the ISS with other spacecraft.

The ISS is an international project. 23 countries participate in it: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg (!!!), the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, USA, Finland, France, Czech Republic , Switzerland, Sweden, Japan. After all, no state alone can financially manage the construction and maintenance of the functionality of the International Space Station. It is not possible to calculate exact or even approximate costs for the construction and operation of the ISS. The official figure has already exceeded 100 billion US dollars, and if we add all the side costs, we get about 150 billion US dollars. The International Space Station is already doing this. the most expensive project throughout the history of mankind. And based on the latest agreements between Russia, the USA and Japan (Europe, Brazil and Canada are still in thought) that the life of the ISS has been extended at least until 2020 (and a further extension is possible), the total costs of maintaining the station will increase even more.

But I suggest we take a break from the numbers. Indeed, in addition to scientific value, the ISS has other advantages. Namely, the opportunity to appreciate the pristine beauty of our planet from the height of orbit. And it is not at all necessary to go into outer space for this.

Because the station has its own observation deck, a glazed module “Dome”.

Briefly about the article: The ISS is humanity's most expensive and ambitious project on the path to space exploration. However, the construction of the station is in full swing, and it is still unknown what will happen to it in a couple of years. We talk about the creation of the ISS and plans for its completion.

Space house

International Space Station

You remain in charge. But don't touch anything.

A joke made by Russian cosmonauts about American Shannon Lucid, which they repeated every time they exited the Mir station into outer space (1996).

Back in 1952, German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun said that humanity would very soon need space stations: once it goes into space, it will be unstoppable. And for the systematic exploration of the Universe, orbital houses are needed. On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the first space station in human history, Salyut 1. It was only 15 meters long, and the volume of habitable space was 90 square meters. By today's standards, the pioneers flew into space on unreliable scrap metal stuffed with radio tubes, but then it seemed that there were no more barriers for humans in space. Now, 30 years later, there is only one habitable object hanging over the planet - “International Space Station.”

It is the largest, most advanced, but at the same time the most expensive station among all that have ever been launched. Questions are increasingly being asked: do people need it? Like, what do we really need in space if there are still so many problems on Earth? Perhaps it’s worth figuring out what this ambitious project is?

The roar of the cosmodrome

The International Space Station (ISS) is a joint project of 6 space agencies: Federal Space Agency (Russia), National Aeronautics and Space Agency (USA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Administration (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA/ASC), Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and European Space Agency (ESA).

However, not all members of the latter took part in the ISS project - Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Austria and Finland refused, and Greece and Luxembourg joined later. In fact, the ISS is based on a synthesis of failed projects - the Russian Mir-2 station and the American Liberty station.

Work on the creation of the ISS began in 1993. The Mir station was launched on February 19, 1986 and had a warranty period of 5 years. In fact, she spent 15 years in orbit - due to the fact that the country simply did not have the money to launch the Mir-2 project. The Americans had similar problems - the Cold War ended, and their Freedom station, on the design alone of which about 20 billion dollars had already been spent, was out of work.

Russia had 25 years of experience working with orbital stations and unique methods for long-term (over a year) human stay in space. In addition, the USSR and the USA had good experience of working together on board the Mir station. In conditions when no country could independently build an expensive orbital station, the ISS became the only alternative.

On March 15, 1993, representatives of the Russian Space Agency and the scientific and production association Energia approached NASA with a proposal to create the ISS. On September 2, a corresponding government agreement was signed, and by November 1, a detailed work plan was prepared. Financial issues of interaction (supply of equipment) were resolved in the summer of 1994, and 16 countries joined the project.

Go!

The deployment of the ISS was started by Russia on November 20, 1998. The Proton rocket launched the Zarya functional cargo block into orbit, which, along with the American docking module NODE-1, delivered into space on December 5 of the same year by the Endever shuttle, formed the “backbone” of the ISS.

"Zarya"- the successor of the Soviet TKS (transport supply ship), designed to serve the Almaz battle stations. At the first stage of assembling the ISS, it became a source of electricity, an equipment warehouse, and a means of navigation and orbit adjustment. All other modules of the ISS now have a more specific specialization, while Zarya is almost universal and in the future will serve as a storage facility (power, fuel, instruments).

Officially, Zarya is owned by the United States - they paid for its creation - but in fact the module was assembled from 1994 to 1998 at the Khrunichev State Space Center. It was included in the ISS instead of the Bus-1 module, designed by the American corporation Lockheed, because it cost 450 million dollars versus 220 million for Zarya.

Zarya has three docking gates - one at each end and one at the side. Its solar panels reach 10.67 meters in length and 3.35 meters in width. In addition, the module has six nickel-cadmium batteries capable of delivering about 3 kilowatts of power (at first there were problems charging them).

Along the outer perimeter of the module there are 16 fuel tanks with a total volume of 6 cubic meters (5700 kilograms of fuel), 24 large rotary jet engines, 12 small ones, as well as 2 main engines for serious orbital maneuvers. Zarya is capable of autonomous (unmanned) flight for 6 months, but due to delays with the Russian Zvezda service module, it had to fly empty for 2 years.

Unity module(created by the Boeing Corporation) went into space after Zarya in December 1998. Equipped with six docking airlocks, it became the central connection point for subsequent station modules. Unity is vital to the ISS. The working resources of all station modules - oxygen, water and electricity - pass through it. Unity also has a basic radio communications system installed that allows it to use Zarya's communications capabilities to communicate with Earth.

Service module “Zvezda”- the main Russian segment of the ISS - launched on July 12, 2000 and docked with Zarya 2 weeks later. Its frame was built back in the 1980s for the Mir-2 project (the design of the Zvezda is very reminiscent of the first Salyut stations, and its design features are similar to the Mir station).

Simply put, this module is housing for astronauts. It is equipped with life support, communications, control, data processing systems, as well as a propulsion system. The total mass of the module is 19,050 kilograms, length is 13.1 meters, the span of solar panels is 29.72 meters.

“Zvezda” has two sleeping places, an exercise bike, a treadmill, a toilet (and other hygienic facilities), and a refrigerator. External visibility is provided by 14 portholes. The Russian electrolytic system “Electron” decomposes waste water. Hydrogen is removed overboard, and oxygen enters the life support system. The “Air” system works in tandem with the “Electron”, absorbing carbon dioxide.

Theoretically, waste water can be purified and reused, but this is rarely practiced on the ISS - fresh water is delivered on board by Progress cargo ships. It must be said that the Electron system malfunctioned several times and the cosmonauts had to use chemical generators - the same “oxygen candles” that once caused a fire at the Mir station.

In February 2001, a laboratory module was attached to the ISS (on one of the Unity gateways) "Destiny"(“Destiny”) is an aluminum cylinder weighing 14.5 tons, 8.5 meters long and 4.3 meters in diameter. It is equipped with five mounting racks with life support systems (each weighs 540 kilograms and can produce electricity, cool water and control air composition), as well as six racks with scientific equipment delivered a little later. The remaining 12 empty installation spaces will be filled over time.

In May 2001, the main airlock compartment of the ISS, the Quest Joint Airlock, was attached to Unity. This six-ton ​​cylinder, measuring 5.5 by 4 meters, is equipped with four high-pressure cylinders (2 - oxygen, 2 - nitrogen) to compensate for the loss of air released outside, and is relatively inexpensive - only 164 million dollars.

Its working space of 34 cubic meters is used for spacewalks, and the size of the airlock allows the use of spacesuits of any type. The fact is that the design of our Orlans assumes their use only in Russian transition compartments, a similar situation with American EMUs.

In this module, astronauts going into space can also rest and breathe pure oxygen to get rid of decompression sickness (with a sharp change in pressure, nitrogen, the amount of which in the tissues of our bodies reaches 1 liter, turns into a gaseous state).

The last of the assembled modules of the ISS is the Russian docking compartment Pirs (SO-1). The creation of SO-2 was stopped due to problems with financing, so the ISS now has only one module, to which the Soyuz-TMA and Progress spacecraft can be easily docked - and three of them at once. In addition, cosmonauts wearing our spacesuits can go outside from it.

And finally, we cannot help but mention another module of the ISS - the baggage multi-purpose support module. Strictly speaking, there are three of them - “Leonardo”, “Raffaello” and “Donatello” (Renaissance artists, as well as three of the four Ninja Turtles). Each module is an almost equilateral cylinder (4.4 by 4.57 meters) transported on shuttles.

It can store up to 9 tons of cargo (full weight - 4082 kilograms, with a maximum load - 13154 kilograms) - supplies delivered to the ISS and waste removed from it. All module luggage is in the normal air environment, so astronauts can reach it without using spacesuits. The luggage modules were manufactured in Italy by order of NASA and belong to the American segments of the ISS. They are used alternately.

Useful little things

In addition to the main modules, the ISS contains a large amount of additional equipment. It is smaller in size than the modules, but without it the operation of the station is impossible.

The working “arms,” or rather the “arm” of the station, is the “Canadarm2” manipulator, mounted on the ISS in April 2001. This high-tech machine, worth $600 million, is capable of moving objects weighing up to 116 tons - for example, assisting in the installation of modules, docking and unloading shuttles (their own “hands” are very similar to “Canadarm2”, only smaller and weaker).

The actual length of the manipulator is 17.6 meters, diameter is 35 centimeters. It is controlled by astronauts from a laboratory module. The most interesting thing is that “Canadarm2” is not fixed in one place and is able to move along the surface of the station, providing access to most of its parts.

Unfortunately, due to differences in connection ports located on the surface of the station, “Canadarm2” cannot move around our modules. In the near future (presumably 2007), it is planned to install ERA (European Robotic Arm) on the Russian segment of the ISS - a shorter and weaker, but more accurate manipulator (positioning accuracy - 3 millimeters), capable of working in semi-automatic mode without constant control by astronauts.

In accordance with the safety requirements of the ISS project, a rescue ship is constantly on duty at the station, capable of delivering the crew to Earth if necessary. Now this function is performed by the good old Soyuz (TMA model) - it is capable of taking 3 people on board and ensuring their vital functions for 3.2 days. “Soyuz” have a short warranty period for staying in orbit, so they are replaced every 6 months.

The workhorses of the ISS are currently the Russian Progresses - siblings of the Soyuz, operating in unmanned mode. During the day, an astronaut consumes about 30 kilograms of cargo (food, water, hygiene products, etc.). Consequently, for a regular six-month duty at the station, one person needs 5.4 tons of supplies. It is impossible to carry so much on the Soyuz, so the station is supplied mainly by shuttles (up to 28 tons of cargo).

After the cessation of their flights, from February 1, 2003 to July 26, 2005, the entire load for the station’s clothing support lay with the Progresses (2.5 tons of load). After unloading the ship, it was filled with waste, undocked automatically and burned up in the atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

Crew: 2 people (as of July 2005), maximum 3

Orbit altitude: From 347.9 km to 354.1 km

Orbital inclination: 51.64 degrees

Daily revolutions around the Earth: 15.73

Distance traveled: About 1.5 billion kilometers

Average speed: 7.69 km/s

Current weight: 183.3 tons

Fuel weight: 3.9 tons

Volume of living space: 425 square meters

Average temperature on board: 26.9 degrees Celsius

Estimated completion of construction: 2010

Planned lifespan: 15 years

Complete assembly of the ISS will require 39 shuttle flights and 30 Progress flights. In its finished form, the station will look like this: air space volume - 1200 cubic meters, weight - 419 tons, power supply - 110 kilowatts, total length of the structure - 108.4 meters (modules - 74 meters), crew - 6 people.

At a crossroads

Until 2003, the construction of the ISS continued as usual. Some modules were cancelled, others were delayed, sometimes problems arose with money, faulty equipment - in general, things were going hard, but still, over the 5 years of its existence, the station became inhabited and scientific experiments were periodically carried out on it.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia died upon entering the dense layers of the atmosphere. The American manned flight program was suspended for 2.5 years. Considering that the station modules awaiting their turn could only be launched into orbit by shuttles, the very existence of the ISS was under threat.

Fortunately, the US and Russia were able to agree on a redistribution of costs. We took over the provision of cargo to the ISS, and the station itself was switched to standby mode - two cosmonauts were constantly on board to monitor the serviceability of the equipment.

Shuttle launches

After the successful flight of the Discovery shuttle in July-August 2005, there was hope that construction of the station would continue. First in line for launch is the twin of the “Unity” connecting module - “Node 2”. Its preliminary start date is December 2006.

The European scientific module “Columbus” will be the second: launch is scheduled for March 2007. This laboratory is already ready and waiting in the wings - it will need to be attached to “Node 2”. It boasts good anti-meteor protection, a unique apparatus for studying the physics of liquids, as well as a European physiological module (comprehensive medical examination directly on board the station).

Following “Columbus” will be the Japanese laboratory “Kibo” (“Hope”) - its launch is scheduled for September 2007. It is interesting in that it has its own mechanical manipulator, as well as a closed “terrace” where experiments can be carried out in outer space. without actually leaving the ship.

The third connecting module - “Node 3” is scheduled to go to the ISS in May 2008. In July 2009, it is planned to launch a unique rotating centrifuge module CAM (Centrifuge Accommodations Module), on board of which artificial gravity will be created in the range from 0.01 to 2 g. It is designed mainly for scientific research - the permanent residence of astronauts in the conditions of earth's gravity, so often described by science fiction writers, is not provided for.

In March 2009, “Cupola” (“Dome”) will fly to the ISS - an Italian development, which, as its name suggests, is an armored observation dome for visual control of the station’s manipulators. For safety, the windows will be equipped with external shutters to protect against meteorites.

The last module delivered to the ISS by American shuttles will be the “Science and Power Platform” - a massive block of solar batteries on an openwork metal truss. It will provide the station with the energy necessary for the normal functioning of the new modules. It will also feature an ERA mechanical arm.

Launches on Protons

Russian Proton rockets are expected to carry three large modules to the ISS. So far, only a very rough flight schedule is known. So, in 2007 it is planned to add to the station our spare functional cargo block (FGB-2 - Zarya’s twin), which will be turned into a multifunctional laboratory.

In the same year, the European robotic arm ERA should be deployed by Proton. And finally, in 2009 it will be necessary to put into operation a Russian research module, functionally similar to the American “Destiny”.

* * *

The ISS is the largest, most expensive and long-term space project in the history of mankind. While the station has not yet been completed, its cost can only be estimated approximately - over 100 billion dollars. Criticism of the ISS most often boils down to the fact that with this money it is possible to carry out hundreds of unmanned scientific expeditions to the planets of the solar system.

There is some truth to such accusations. However, this is a very limited approach. Firstly, it does not take into account the potential profit from the development of new technologies when creating each new module of the ISS - and its instruments are truly at the forefront of science. Their modifications can be used in everyday life and can bring enormous income.

We must not forget that thanks to the ISS program, humanity has the opportunity to preserve and increase all the precious technologies and skills of manned space flights that were obtained in the second half of the 20th century at an incredible price. In the “space race” of the USSR and the USA, a lot of money was spent, many people died - all this may be in vain if we stop moving in the same direction.

> 10 facts you didn't know about the ISS

The most interesting facts about the ISS(International Space Station) with photo: life of astronauts, you can see the ISS from Earth, crew members, gravity, batteries.

The International Space Station (ISS) is one of the greatest technological achievements of all mankind in history. The space agencies of the USA, Europe, Russia, Canada and Japan have united in the name of science and education. It is a symbol of technological excellence and demonstrates how much we can achieve when we collaborate. Below are 10 facts you may have never heard about the ISS.

1. The ISS celebrated its 10th anniversary of continuous human operation on November 2, 2010. Since the first expedition (October 31, 2000) and docking (November 2), the station was visited by 196 people from eight countries.

2. The ISS can be seen from Earth without the use of technology and is the largest artificial satellite ever to orbit our planet.

3. Since the first Zarya module, launched at 1:40 a.m. Eastern Time on November 20, 1998, the ISS has completed 68,519 orbits around the Earth. Her odometer shows 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion km).

4. As of November 2, 103 launches were made to the cosmodrome: 67 Russian vehicles, 34 shuttles, one European and one Japanese ship. 150 spacewalks were made to assemble the station and maintain its operation, which took more than 944 hours.

5. The ISS is controlled by a crew of 6 astronauts and cosmonauts. At the same time, the station program has ensured the continuous presence of man in space since the launch of the first expedition on October 31, 2000, which is approximately 10 years and 105 days. Thus, the program maintained the current record, beating the previous mark of 3,664 days set aboard Mir.

6. The ISS serves as a research laboratory equipped with microgravity conditions, in which the crew conducts experiments in the fields of biology, medicine, physics, chemistry and physiology, as well as astronomical and meteorological observations.

7. The station is equipped with huge solar panels that span the size of a US football field, including end zones, and weigh 827,794 pounds (275,481 kg). The complex has a habitable room (like a five-bedroom house) equipped with two bathrooms and a gym.

8. 3 million lines of software code on Earth support 1.8 million lines of flight code.

9. A 55-foot robotic arm can lift 220,000 feet of weight. For comparison, this is what the orbital shuttle weighs.

10. Acres of solar panels provide 75-90 kilowatts of power for the ISS.

Orbit is, first of all, the flight path of the ISS around the Earth. In order for the ISS to fly in a strictly specified orbit, and not fly into deep space or fall back to Earth, a number of factors had to be taken into account such as its speed, the mass of the station, the capabilities of launch vehicles, delivery ships, the capabilities of cosmodromes and, of course, economic factors.

The ISS orbit is a low-Earth orbit, which is located in outer space above the Earth, where the atmosphere is in an extremely rarefied state and the particle density is low to such an extent that it does not provide significant resistance to flight. The ISS orbital altitude is the main flight requirement for the station in order to get rid of the influence of the Earth's atmosphere, especially its dense layers. This is a region of the thermosphere at an altitude of approximately 330-430 km

When calculating the orbit for the ISS, a number of factors were taken into account.

The first and main factor is the impact of radiation on humans, which is significantly increased above 500 km and this can affect the health of astronauts, since their established permissible dose for six months is 0.5 sieverts and should not exceed one sievert in total for all flights.

The second significant argument when calculating the orbit is the ships delivering crews and cargo for the ISS. For example, Soyuz and Progress were certified for flights to an altitude of 460 km. American space shuttle delivery ships could not even fly up to 390 km. and therefore, earlier, when using them, the ISS orbit also did not go beyond these limits of 330-350 km. After the shuttle flights ceased, the orbital altitude began to be raised to minimize atmospheric influences.

Economic parameters are also taken into account. The higher the orbit, the further you fly, the more fuel and therefore less necessary cargo the ships will be able to deliver to the station, which means you will have to fly more often.

The required height is also considered from the point of view of the assigned scientific tasks and experiments. To solve given scientific problems and current research, altitudes up to 420 km are still sufficient.

The problem of space debris, which enters the ISS orbit, poses the most serious danger, also occupies an important place.

As already mentioned, the space station must fly so as not to fall or fly out of its orbit, that is, to move at the first escape velocity, carefully calculated.

An important factor is the calculation of the orbital inclination and the launch point. The ideal economic factor is to launch from the equator clockwise, since the speed of the Earth's rotation is an additional indicator of speed. The next relatively economically cheap indicator is to launch with an inclination equal to the latitude, since less fuel will be required for maneuvers during launch, and the political issue is also taken into account. For example, despite the fact that the Baikonur Cosmodrome is located at a latitude of 46 degrees, the ISS orbit is at an angle of 51.66. Rocket stages launched into a 46-degree orbit could fall into Chinese or Mongolia territory, which usually leads to costly conflicts. When choosing a cosmodrome to launch the ISS into orbit, the international community decided to use the Baikonur Cosmodrome, due to the most suitable launch site and the flight path for such a launch covering most of the continents.

An important parameter of the space orbit is the mass of the object flying along it. But the mass of the ISS often changes due to its updating with new modules and visits by delivery ships, and therefore it was designed to be very mobile and with the ability to vary both in height and in directions with options for turns and maneuvering.

The height of the station is changed several times a year, mainly to create ballistic conditions for the docking of ships visiting it. In addition to the change in the mass of the station, there is a change in the speed of the station due to friction with the remnants of the atmosphere. As a result, mission control centers have to adjust the ISS orbit to the required speed and altitude. The adjustment occurs by turning on the engines of delivery ships and, less often, by turning on the engines of the main base service module "Zvezda", which have boosters. At the right moment, when the engines are additionally turned on, the station’s flight speed is increased to the calculated one. The change in orbit altitude is calculated at the Mission Control Centers and is carried out automatically without the participation of astronauts.

But the maneuverability of the ISS is especially necessary in the event of a possible encounter with space debris. At cosmic speeds, even a small piece of it can be deadly for both the station itself and its crew. Omitting data on the shields for protecting against small debris at the station, we will briefly talk about the ISS maneuvers to avoid collisions with debris and change the orbit. For this purpose, a corridor zone with dimensions 2 km above and plus 2 km below it, as well as 25 km in length and 25 km in width has been created along the ISS flight route, and constant monitoring is being carried out to ensure that space debris does not fall into this zone. This is the so-called protective zone for the ISS. The cleanliness of this area is calculated in advance. US Strategic Command USSTRATCOM at Vandenberg Air Force Base maintains a catalog of space debris. Experts constantly compare the movement of debris with the movement in the orbit of the ISS and make sure that, God forbid, their paths do not cross. More precisely, they calculate the probability of a collision of some piece of debris in the ISS flight zone. If a collision is possible with at least a probability of 1/100,000 or 1/10,000, then 28.5 hours in advance this is reported to NASA (Lyndon Johnson Space Center) to the ISS flight control to the ISS Trajectory Operation Officer (abbreviated as TORO). Here at TORO, monitors monitor the location of the station in time, the spacecraft docking at it, and that the station is safe. Having received a message about a possible collision and coordinates, TORO transfers it to the Russian Korolev Flight Control Center, where ballistics specialists prepare a plan for a possible variant of maneuvers to avoid a collision. This is a plan with a new flight route with coordinates and precise sequential maneuver actions to avoid a possible collision with space debris. The created new orbit is re-checked to see if any collisions will occur on the new path again, and if the answer is positive, it is put into operation. Transfer to a new orbit is carried out from Mission Control Centers from Earth in computer mode automatically without the participation of cosmonauts and astronauts.

For this purpose, the station has 4 American Control Moment Gyroscopes installed at the center of mass of the Zvezda module, measuring about a meter and weighing about 300 kg each. These are rotating inertial devices that allow the station to be correctly oriented with high accuracy. They work in concert with Russian attitude control thrusters. In addition to this, Russian and American delivery ships are equipped with boosters that, if necessary, can also be used to move and rotate the station.

In the event that space debris is detected in less than 28.5 hours and there is no time left for calculations and approval of a new orbit, the ISS is given the opportunity to avoid a collision using a pre-compiled standard automatic maneuver for entering a new orbit called PDAM (Predetermined Debris Avoidance Maneuver) . Even if this maneuver is dangerous, that is, it can lead to a new dangerous orbit, then the crew boards the Soyuz spacecraft in advance, always ready and docked to the station, and awaits the collision in complete readiness for evacuation. If necessary, the crew is instantly evacuated. In the entire history of ISS flights, there have been 3 such cases, but thank God they all ended well, without the need for the cosmonauts to evacuate, or, as they say, they did not fall into one case out of 10,000. From the principle of “God takes care,” here more than ever we cannot deviate.

As we already know, the ISS is the most expensive (more than 150 billion dollars) space project of our civilization and is a scientific start to long-distance space flights; people constantly live and work on the ISS. The safety of the station and the people on it are worth much more than the money spent. In this regard, the first place is given to the correctly calculated orbit of the ISS, constant monitoring of its cleanliness and the ability of the ISS to quickly and accurately evade and maneuver when necessary.

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant international space projects, the largest artificial habitable satellite of the Earth - the International Space Station (ISS). 20 years ago, on January 29, the Agreement on the creation of a space station was signed in Washington, and already on November 20, 1998, construction of the station began - the Proton launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with the first module - the Zarya functional cargo block (FGB) " In the same year, on December 7, the second element of the orbital station, the Unity connecting module, was docked with the Zarya FGB. Two years later, a new addition to the station was the Zvezda service module.

On November 2, 2000, the International Space Station (ISS) began its operation in manned mode. The Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft with the crew of the first long-term expedition docked to the Zvezda service module.The ship's approach to the station was carried out according to the scheme that was used during flights to the Mir station. Ninety minutes after docking, the hatch was opened and the ISS-1 crew stepped aboard the ISS for the first time.The ISS-1 crew included Russian cosmonauts Yuri GIDZENKO, Sergei KRIKALEV and American astronaut William SHEPHERD.

Arriving at the ISS, the cosmonauts reactivated, retrofitted, launched and configured the systems of the Zvezda, Unity and Zarya modules and established communications with mission control centers in Korolev and Houston near Moscow. Over the course of four months, 143 sessions of geophysical, biomedical and technical research and experiments were carried out. In addition, the ISS-1 team provided dockings with the Progress M1-4 cargo spacecraft (November 2000), Progress M-44 (February 2001) and the American shuttle Endeavor (Endeavour, December 2000) , Atlantis (“Atlantis”; February 2001), Discovery (“Discovery”; March 2001) and their unloading. Also in February 2001, the expedition team integrated the Destiny laboratory module into the ISS.

On March 21, 2001, with the American space shuttle Discovery, which delivered the crew of the second expedition to the ISS, the team of the first long-term mission returned to Earth. The landing site was the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.

In subsequent years, the Quest airlock chamber, the Pirs docking compartment, the Harmony connecting module, the Columbus laboratory module, the Kibo cargo and research module, the Poisk small research module, were docked to the International Space Station. residential module “Tranquility”, observation module “Domes”, small research module “Rassvet”, multifunctional module “Leonardo”, transformable test module “BEAM”.

Today, the ISS is the largest international project, a manned orbital station used as a multi-purpose space research complex. The space agencies ROSCOSMOS, NASA (USA), JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada), ESA (European countries) participate in this global project.

With the creation of the ISS, it became possible to perform scientific experiments in the unique conditions of microgravity, in a vacuum and under the influence of cosmic radiation. The main areas of research are physical and chemical processes and materials in space, Earth exploration and space exploration technologies, man in space, space biology and biotechnology. Considerable attention in the work of astronauts on the International Space Station is paid to educational initiatives and the popularization of space research.

The ISS is a unique experience of international cooperation, support and mutual assistance; construction and operation in low-Earth orbit of a large engineering structure that is of paramount importance for the future of all mankind.