The International Space Station

The International Space Station is a giant satellite with over 15 crew members working and building it in space. It will have eight Solar Panels that will supply 100 kilowatts and are attached to a metal frame work which is 360 ft. long. It's being built by 15 different countries including: United States, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Japan, and other European countries called the E.S.A.

The first six modules of the Soviet Salyut Station and the U.S. Skylab, were launched in the 1970's. In 1986, the Soviet Union sent their first space station called "Mir" into space, they built it based on the Soyuz space craft. Soon in 1991,when the Cold War was over and the Soviet Union fell from power, Russian cosmonauts took over Mir and sent it crashing towards Earth.

In the 1990's, the Russians wanted to make a Mir 2, and the United States wanted to make a station called Freedom , in partnership with Canada, Japan, and the E.S.A. but due to financial funding, neither were made. In 1993, Russia and the United States agreed to make a combined space station called the International Space Station.

There were several modules sent to be combined in space. The first module was sent by Russia called Zarya (Sunrise in Russia.) The second module was sent by the U.S. that is called Unity, that was sent into space by the space shuttle Endeavour in December 1998. Unity has seven hatches, one connected to Zarya, and he others will connect to the other six modules.

In July, 2000, Russia sent a proton rocket to bring another module called Zvezda (star), this module was the part where astronauts and cosmonauts lived. In October 2000 the shuttle Discovery brought in supplies including support truss for connecting soar panels and a connecting unit called the Pressurized Mating Adapter (P.M.A.) which allowed shuttles to dock. In November, 2000, the first full time crew arrived called Expedition One. Expedition One arrived in a Soyuz, and their crew commander was William Shepherd, with the rest being cosmonauts.

Latter in November, space shuttle Endeavour brought the first four U.S. built solar panels to the station. In February, 2001, the U.S sent another shuttle called Atlantis that carried the U.S. built Destiny laboratory module, and in the next few months, it was activated and scientific research began. Two more modules were sent in 2001, a U.S. and a Russian airlock and docking port where added.

Later in 2001, N.A.S.A. planned to make seven person escape craft for the full time crew but, N.A.S.A. underestimated the cost and to build it would be $5 billion over budget, so instead of enlarging the crew, N.A.S.A. decided to to make the escape craft, and to suspend the plan to enlarge the crew. N.A.S.A.'s partners in Japan and Europe strongly objected to that decision.

In 2002, the station continued to operate with it's crew. Russian cosmonauts flew a new Soyuz every six months to serve as a "Bail -out-capsule" in case of life threatening emergency and a shuttle would come every 4-5 months to replace parts.

Up until 2003, the operation on making the space station had been almost perfect, but on February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia burned up reentering earth's atmosphere. N.A.S.A. halted sending space shuttles up for a while, Soyuz missions where made to bring crews to and fro the station to reduce supplies.