Five Things To Know About The International Space Station

Five space agencies representing 15 countries operate the International Space Station.

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Russia is scrambling to bring home three astronauts – two Russians and an American – who were stranded on the International Space Station after a meteor damaged a spacecraft intended to return them to Earth. .

Here are some key facts about the orbiting lab set up to advance space exploration – and prepare to send humans to Mars – where the Russians and Americans worked together for a quarter of a century.

– The size of a football field –
The ISS is the largest man-made structure ever put into orbit.

Launched in 1998 by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and members of the European Space Agency (ESA), it is the size of a football field and weighs as much as a packed Boeing 747.

Built at a total cost of about $100 billion, largely at the expense of the United States, it orbits Earth every 90 minutes at an average altitude of 400 kilometers (250 miles).

It has been permanently occupied since November 2000 by crews led by Russia and the US, who usually stay for about six months to conduct experiments in a microgravity (zero-gravity) environment. have practical applications on Earth and help prepare for future Mars missions.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei holds the record for the longest stay aboard the ISS, for 355 days.

– Model of US-Russia cooperation –
Five space agencies representing 15 countries operate the ISS.

NASA and the space agencies of Europe (ESA), Canada (CSA) and Japan (JAXA) operate the US Orbital Segment, which is responsible for providing solar energy. The Russian orbital segment, operated by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, is responsible for propulsion and orbit maintenance.

The United States and Russia each provide half of the food needed on the ISS, brought by Russian and American supply ships, including one from Twitter owner Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The station has a full crew of seven, but the number on board can be as high as 13 during crew rotations.

Eight spacecraft can be docked at any time to the ISS, which can arrive from Earth in about four hours.

Soyuz has three locations and SpaceX’s Dragon 2 has four.

There are always two spacecraft moored at the ISS for emergency evacuation, but one of these was hit by a meteorite.

– Day 18 o’clock –
Astronauts on the ISS are always busy.

A day that starts at 6 a.m. and lights out at 10:30 p.m., after 8 to 10 hours of science experiments, two hours of physical activity to avoid muscle loss due to microgravity, and three hours of housework, fixing treatment and leisure time.

About 200 experiments are going on at any one time.

It’s important to stay busy, says French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, because “if you have nothing to do, it’s like a prison with great views and some fun things like floating .”

– Removal of burning waste –
No one has a private room on the ISS let alone a bed. Astronauts get into sleeping bags arranged vertically.

There is very little water on the ISS: some is carried from Earth, the rest is extracted from the air and urine. Wastewater is purified and recycled for use in meals.

The ISS has neither showers nor dishwashers: the astronauts use wipes and exhaust gases to remove the solid waste, which is compressed in boxes and loaded onto supply ships, which burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere. Earth.

– Uncertain future –
The ISS was never built to last forever.

Both NASA and ESA want to continue operating until at least 2030. But the Russians said in July 2022 – in the midst of the war in Ukraine – that they wanted to withdraw after 2024 to establish their own station. without making it official.

After 2030, the ISS could be decommissioned and plunge into an uninhabited area of ​​the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA, which has announced plans to transition to commercial space stations.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)