25 years since the assembly of the @Space_Station!On Dec. 6, 1998, Endeavour and her six-person crew mated Unity, the first U.S. element of the station, to the previously launched Zarya module. Designed and built by engineers thousands of miles apart, the first two modules of the orbiting laboratory fit perfectly together when they met in space.
Some of the achievements include:- Creating an international coalition to insulate the station from the fiscal ups and downs of any one nation.- Operating an international coalition to keep the station occupied and doing increasingly harder experiments.
Pushing NASA outside of the "Build a rocket for each new program" paradigm, and allow the station to be supported by an increasing number of launch vehicles and spacecraft.
Before the ISS we viewed activity in space as individual "missions", but now humanity has occupied space CONTINUOUSLY for over 23 years on the ISS!
One for the books. 👨🚀🛰The first spacewalk to assemble the space station was underway 25 years ago today. Astronauts James Newman and Jerry Ross mated 40 cables and connectors between the Unity and Zarya modules during a seven-hour, 21-minute excursion.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center25 Years Ago: The First Pieces of the International Space Station The mated Russian-built Zarya (left) and U.S.-built Unity modules are backdropped against the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon shortly after leaving Endeavour’s cargo bay on Dec. 13, 1998. A few days earlier, on Dec. 6, 1998, the space shuttle Endeavour, mission STS-88, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the Unity connecting module and two pressurized mating adapters. The same day, the STS-88 crew captured the Russian Zarya module, launched Nov. 20, and mated it with the Unity node. Unity was the first piece of the International Space Station provided by the United States. The components in the current space station were built in various countries around the world, with each piece performing once connected in space by complex robotics systems and humans in spacesuits—a testament to teamwork and cultural coordination. Image credit: NASA
For 25 years, the International Space Station has impacted our view of Earth and who we are. It has served as a lesson in international cooperation and the importance of taking action to care for our planet.Happy birthday, @Space_Station!
Quote from: Coastal Ron on 11/22/2023 08:11 pmSome of the achievements include:- Creating an international coalition to insulate the station from the fiscal ups and downs of any one nation.- Operating an international coalition to keep the station occupied and doing increasingly harder experiments.I'll give you the coalition part, that's been a superb achievement. Somehow it continues despite one of the partners waging a major regional proxy war against the other four. It has not, however, grown past serving the status quo.Claiming that the station's experiments have gotten "increasingly harder" is tough to justify, at least to a non-expert. To a modestly informed follower of space developments like me, they've been touting the exact same research over and over, from before the station even existed, doing similar things in Shuttle's labs in the '80s...if not the same things in Salyut and Skylab missions in the '70s. The few experiments that at least looked novel, like the Bigelow module and the rollout solar panels, are frankly underwhelming for a 12-figure costing, twenty-year program.
Quote from: Coastal Ron on 11/22/2023 08:11 pmPushing NASA outside of the "Build a rocket for each new program" paradigm, and allow the station to be supported by an increasing number of launch vehicles and spacecraft.Indeed, but only one of them has managed to become a legit commercial vehicle with a growing private business. Cygnus and Antares have remained rare and exclusively tied to NASA. Ditto the Japanese and European vessels, retired before anything more could become of them. Quote from: Coastal Ron on 11/22/2023 08:11 pmBefore the ISS we viewed activity in space as individual "missions", but now humanity has occupied space CONTINUOUSLY for over 23 years on the ISS! It has produced a very stable status quo. One with very minimal growth in any dimension, and failing to directly facilitate any greater aspirations. Plan to increase volume: No.
Plan to increase sustained population: No.
More than one station in operation simultaneously: No.
Investigate artificial spin gravity: No.
Boost to high orbits: No.
Possible utility for refueling depots: No.
In an orbit to facilitate traffic between Earth and the Moon or Mars? No.
ISS exists for status quo, as the status quo existed decades ago. It has done a job of that. It offers little or nothing to do anything more.
There have been literally thousands of scientific publications based on ISS research.
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 01/12/2024 01:37 amThere have been literally thousands of scientific publications based on ISS research.Thousands of publications is very underwhelming considering ISS's costs. Many scientific and engineering disciplines spend on the order of $100k per publication - that buys about one PhD student or post doc for a year. The ISS cost hundreds of billions of dollars so it cost on the order of $100M per publication, three orders of magnitude more costly.
