International Space Station Construction

Atop its proton rocket on nov.

International space station construction. It is the result of unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries. The international space station iss took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble. To get round this problem the space station was taken into space piece by piece and gradually built in orbit approximately 400 km above the earth s surface.

The russian built zarya control module was the first piece of the international space station iss to take flight in 1998. In march 2006 a meeting of the heads of the five participating space agencies accepted the new iss construction schedule that planned to complete the iss by 2010. A partnership between european countries represented by esa the united states nasa japan jaxa canada csa and russia roscosmos the international space station is the world s largest international cooperative programme in science and technology.

20 1998 the zarya functional cargo block fgb thundered off its launch pad at the baikonur cosmodrome into cold wintry skies. Requirements for stepping up the crew size included enhanced environmental support on the iss a second soyuz permanently docked on the station to function as a second lifeboat more. The iss programmeevolved from the space station freedom an american proposal in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed earth orbiting station and the contemporaneous soviet russian mir 2proposal with similar aims.

This assembly required more than 40 missions. Get the latest news images videos and more from humanity s home in orbit the international space station. Here it sits alone in space waiting for additional components and.

20 years ago space station construction begins the largest most complex international construction project in space began on the steppes of kazakhstan 20 years ago today.