The first module of the International Space Station is 20 years old

The International Space Station seen from the crew leaving Soyuz MS-08 in October 2018, a month and a half before the 20th anniversary of the outpost. Photo credit: NASA / Roscosmos

For two decades, the International Space Station has been a shining example of what can be accomplished when humanity works together.

With 15 partner countries and five space agencies, this 420-ton football field complex orbits the Earth at an altitude of 400 km every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,500 km / h. It consists of 15 main pressurized modules with a combined pressurized volume of 932 cubic meters (32,898 cubic feet), which equates to that of a Boeing 747!

The current crew of Expedition 57 – Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, left, NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, in the center, and the astronaut of the European Space Agency Alexander Gerst, takes a photo of group in the dome of the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

"There was a time when seemingly crazy optimists dreamed of this ISS project," said European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, the current commander of the space station, at the time. a conference celebrating its 20th anniversary. "Other people, calling themselves realistic, said that it was not possible. But more and more people understood the meaning of such a project and sided with the optimists. "

Gerst is part of the crew of three Expedition 57. His two teammates are Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor.

Over the past two decades, the outpost has hosted hundreds of people from 18 different countries to conduct thousands of experiments in physics, biology, medicine, life sciences, metallurgy, remote sensing and genetics, to name a few. than these, for the benefit of the whole. world. NASA and other space agencies are even using the outpost to study how to allow humanity to expand to far-flung destinations such as the Moon and Mars.

It took dozens of flights using the NASA space shuttle as well as several Proton and Soyuz rockets from Russia to build this incredible complex in 13 years. The complete assembly was declared in the spring of 2011.

"The man built this [space station] with their visions and with their hands, "said Gerst. "We could not have built it if we had not put aside international differences and if we had not met on a global level."

But this human feat had to begin with a first step, namely the launch of the first module on November 20, 1998 – the functional cargo block Zarya.

Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station, is seen by the space shuttle mission STS-88 in 1998. Photo credit: NASA

Meaning "sunrise" or "dawn" in Russian, Zarya provided the nascent space station with its first powers, storage and propulsion. The module itself measures 41.2 feet (12.6 meters) long and 13.5 feet (4.1 meters) wide with a mass of 19,300 kilograms. It has two solar panels with a span of 10.7 meters (35 feet), which has provided energy during the first years of life of the plant before the large panels start to take a share more important in the production of electricity. These have since been retracted to allow the deployment of radiators on the extensive integrated lattice structure of the stations.

Using the Canadian Space Shuttle Arm, the STS-88 crew captured Zarya and secured it to the Unity module during STS-88 in December 1998. Photo: NASA

With three docking ports, it currently forms the connection point of three main modules: at the front, Unity via Pressurized Mating Adapter 1, at the back the Zvezda service module and at its nadir , Rassvet. These would be joined in 1998, 2000 and 2010 respectively.

Zarya was originally designed for the Mir space station, but was integrated with the ISS program in the 1990s, when Russia joined the project. Built in Moscow between December 1994 and January 1998, it was mainly financed by the United States.

On 4 December 1998, two weeks after Zarya was put into orbit, NASA launched space shuttle Endeavor on mission STS-88. The first addition to the ISS, a node module called Unity, was in the payload bay of the orbiter. Pressurized coupling adapters were attached at either end.

Endeavor would take two days to reach Zarya. In the meantime, the crew used the Canadarm robotic arm to remove Unity from the payload bay and attach it to the orbiter attachment system via the Pressurized Coupling Adapter 2.

Once near Zarya, the robotic arm was used to seize it also before connecting the module directly to the pressurized coupling adapter 1. The final connection was established at 9:07 PM. EST December 6 (2h07 GMT December 7). Several spacewalks would be made before hatches were opened between the shuttle and the ISS.

This historic opening took place at 14:54 10:00 (EST) on 10 December, allowing NASA astronaut Bob Cabana and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev to become the first two characters of the new ISS.

NASA astronaut Bob Cabana, left cosmonaut and Russian Sergei Krikalev prepare to open the door to the Zarya module during STS-88. Photo credit: NASA

STS-88 would leave ISS blank on December 13th. Over the next two years, several other space shuttle flights will take place to prepare the outpost for use. In addition, two additional components would be required to support a full-time occupation: the Zvezda service module in July 2000 and the Z1 trellis segment, which provided communication hardware and four control-time gyroscopes for control of attitude, as well as a temporary location for a giant ensemble. solar panels, in October 2000.

The International Space Station after its first assembly flight in 1998. Photo credit: NASA

The first crew to occupy the space station, Expedition 1, was launched on 31 October 2000 aboard their Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft at the top of a Soyuz-U rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome and moored at the back port of Zvezda two days later in November. 2. This first crew was the NASA astronaut and first ISS commander, William Shepherd, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko and Krikalev, who had taken part in the first assembly mission in 1998 .

Since then, there has been a whole series of expeditions with long crews ranging from two to six people. On several occasions during the Space Shuttle era, the outpost even hosted up to 13 people for two weeks.

As of 2018, the space station should operate for at least 2024 or even 2028 if funding is still available and the equipment is maintained. For the time being, the ISS continues to be a beacon of international cooperation and is one of the major success stories of manned spaceflight. It paves the way for breakthroughs in dozens of areas, helps promote a market for commercial research into low Earth orbit, and lays the groundwork for future human missions beyond the low Earth orbit.

"ISS is a ship that teaches us to fly beyond the horizon," Gerst said. "This covers [an equivalent] distance from the Earth to the Moon in half a day. We are literally the first generation of fish to leave the ocean. The next generation will support Mars using the knowledge and technologies developed on the International Space Station. "

Video provided by NASA

Tagged: Expedition 57 International Space Station World Stories SpaceStation20th Zarya

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Derek Richardson

Derek Richardson is a graduate in mass media, with a specialization in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. When he was in Washburn, he was the editor of the student-run newspaper, Washburn Review. He also has a blog on the International Space Station called Orbital Velocity. He met with members of the SpaceFlight Insider team when flying a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket with the MUOS-4 satellite. Richardson joined our team shortly thereafter.

His passion for space was ignited when he watched the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery in space on October 29, 1998. Today, this fervor is still alive. is accelerated to orbit and shows no signs of slowing down. After attending math and engineering courses at the university, he quickly realized that his true calling was to communicate with others about the space. Since joining SpaceFlight Insider in 2015, Richardson has worked to improve the quality of our content and later became our editor. @TheSpaceWriter