International Space Station

The International Space Station is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. And when it is complete just after the turn of the century, the station will represent a move of unprecedented scale off the home planet. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil.

More than four times as large as the Russian Mir space station, the completed International Space Station will have a mass of about 1,040,000 pounds. It will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long, with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power to six state-of-the-art laboratories.

The station will be in an orbit with an altitude of 250 statute miles with an inclination of 51.6 degrees. This orbit allows the station to be reached by the launch vehicles of all the international partners to provide a robust capability for the delivery of crews and supplies. The orbit also provides excellent Earth observations with coverage of 85 percent of the globe and over flight of 95 percent of the population.

Due to the ISS, there is always a permanent human presence in space, as there have always been at least two people on board ISS since the first permanent crew entered the ISS on November 2, 2000. The ISS is currently still under construction with a projected completion date of 2010.

As of 2006 there have been four space tourists to the ISS, each spending ca. US$20 million; they all went there aboard Russian supply missions.

There has also been a space wedding when cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko on the station married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas.

Golf Shot Around The World was a planned event in which a special golf ball, equipped with a tracking device, was hit from the station and sent into its own low Earth orbit. The Russian space agency had consented, for a fee paid by a Canadian golf equipment manufacturer.

To see the current I.S.S. position Click Here

To find out when it is over Waterford Click Here

For more information about the I.S.S. visit http://www.nasa.gov/