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The International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS), the most complex and expensive structure that has ever been launched and built in space is expected to be a permanent off-planet extension of human civilization. When completed, it will be a multi-room hotel and re-search facility orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes. By that time, resupply and assembly flight by shuttles or rockets will have be­come routine.

The Russians and Americans are partners in this international enterprise. The three person multi-national crews will be alternately composed of two Americans and one Russian followed by a Russian majority. Later a six or seven-person crew will occupy the station. Some astronauts may stay on the ISS up to 187 days, but there are no plans yet for longer missions The official life expectancy of the station itself is 10 years, but it should last much longer

Five times the size of the Russian space station Mir, the ISS will be one of the biggest objects in the night sky, looking like a supersize Lego set, almost as long as a football field. Only the Moon and Venus will be bigger and more visible.

The fifth-generation station's complexity is as awesome as its size. Built by a partnership of 16 nations, the ISS will consist of modules and hundreds of individual elements that come from all over the world. The station involves the most technologically advanced nations — Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and 11 European nations. There will be many interconnected parts from so many countries that it would be impossible to predict how they would interact.

Hence, it is very important that all of these elements made by different suppliers should fit together properly and work exactly as planned. But even if all the parts fitted perfectly, the assembly pro cess itself in orbit would be risky. The space station is flown while it is being constructed and each new building block added might change the way the station behaves in flight, which could result in serious trouble.

The ISS may be the world's most ambitious engineering project in history, but it could not have been realized without previous extensive experience in operating the Russian Mir space station. Mir was a great achievement. Russia learned how to build and maintain complex structures in space, Mir also gave citizens of more than a dozen countries their first opportunity to explore space. It should be noted that Mir has proved to be the perfect training ground for the ISS. For more than a decade, at least two humans were always in low Earth orbit. That is why it was planned that Russia would supply and deliver 12 modules for the future station, each being a key module among its 36 ones. They are: the basic power module, the control, the life support, the service modules and others.

What is the purpose of the ISS? It is a political program as well as a science program. This program is no longer only about con ducting scientific investigations in the absence of gravity, or about learning how to build a massive project weighing 400 tons in orbit, or about establishing the base for a future trip to Mars. The ISS is more than merely the next great adventure of the space age. It is also about promoting international cooperation and creating thousands of peacetime jobs for highly skilled workers and engineers

The implementation of the broad international program would require more than $40 billion. Some space experts would like to attract commercial users such as, e.g., biotechnology companies in order that the cost of the station should be lowered. And some spe­cialists have even suggested that the station be used for advertising and Hollywood filmmaking.