Orbit of the International Space Station ISS. Space

The idea of ​​creating an international space station arose in the early 1990s. The project became international when Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency joined the US. In December 1993, the United States, together with other countries participating in the creation of the Alpha space station, invited Russia to become a partner in this project. Russian government accepted the offer, after which some experts began to call the project "Ralpha", that is, "Russian Alpha", - recalls NASA public relations representative Ellen Kline.

Experts estimate that the construction of Alfa-R can be completed by 2002 and will cost about $17.5 billion. "It's very cheap," said NASA chief Daniel Goldin. - If we worked alone, the costs would be high. And so, thanks to cooperation with the Russians, we get not only political, but also material benefits ... "

It was finances, or rather their lack, that forced NASA to look for partners. The original project - it was called "Freedom" - was very grandiose. It was assumed that at the station it would be possible to repair satellites and entire spacecraft, study the functioning of the human body during a long stay in weightlessness, conduct astronomical research, and even establish production.

The Americans were also attracted by the unique methods, on which millions of rubles and years of work of Soviet scientists and engineers were put. Having worked in the same "team" with the Russians, they also received a fairly complete understanding of Russian methods, technologies, etc., related to long-term orbital stations. It's hard to estimate how many billions of dollars they're worth.

The Americans have made for the station a scientific laboratory, a residential module, docking blocks "Node-1" and "Node-2". The Russian side developed and delivered a functional cargo block, a universal docking module, transport supply ships, a service module and a Proton launch vehicle.

Most of the work was carried out by the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center. The central part of the station was the functional-cargo block, similar in size and main structural elements to the Kvant-2 and Kristall modules of the Mir station. Its diameter is 4 meters, length - 13 meters, weight - more than 19 tons. The block serves as a home for the astronauts in the initial period of the station's assembly, as well as to provide it with electricity from solar panels and storage of fuel supplies for propulsion systems. The service module was created on the basis of the central part of the Mir-2 station developed in the 1980s. Astronauts live in it permanently and conduct experiments.

Members of the European Space Agency have developed the Columbus laboratory and an automatic transport vehicle for a launch vehicle

"Ariane-5", Canada delivered a mobile service system, Japan - an experimental module.

The assembly of the International Space Station required approximately 28 American Space Shuttle flights, 17 Russian launches, and one Ariana-5 launch. The crews and equipment were supposed to be delivered to the station on 29 Russian ships"Soyuz-TM" and "Progress".

The total internal volume of the station after its assembly in orbit was 1217 square meters, weight - 377 tons, of which 140 tons are Russian components, 37 tons are American. The estimated operating time of the international station is 15 years.

Due to the financial troubles that plagued the Russian Aerospace Agency, the construction of the ISS got off schedule by two whole years. But finally, on July 20, 1998, from the Baikonur cosmodrome, the Proton launch vehicle launched the Zarya functional unit, the first element of the international space station, into orbit. And on July 26, 2000, our Zvezda connected with the ISS.

This day went down in the history of its creation as one of the most important. At the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston and at the Russian Mission Control Center in the city of Korolev, the hands on the clocks show different times, but the ovation burst out at them at the same time.

Until that time, the ISS was a set of lifeless building blocks, Zvezda breathed a “soul” into it: a scientific laboratory suitable for life and long-term fruitful work appeared in orbit. It is fundamentally new stage a grandiose international experiment involving 16 countries.

"Now the gates are open to continue construction of the International Space Station," said NASA spokesman Kyle Herring with satisfaction. On the this moment The ISS consists of three elements - the Zvezda service module and the Zarya functional cargo block, created by Russia, as well as the Unity docking port, built by the United States. With the docking of the new module, the station not only grew noticeably, but also became heavier, as far as possible in zero gravity, gaining a total of about 60 tons.

After that, a kind of rod was assembled in near-Earth orbit, on which more and more new structural elements could be “strung”. "Star" is the cornerstone of the entire future space structure, comparable in size to a city block. Scientists claim that a fully assembled station in terms of brightness will be the third object in the starry sky - after the Moon and Venus. It can be observed even with the naked eye.

The $340 million Russian bloc is the key element that ensures the transition from quantity to quality. "Star" is the "brain" of the ISS. The Russian module is not only the place of residence of the first crews of the station. Zvezda carries a powerful central onboard computer and communications equipment, a life support system and a propulsion system that will provide the ISS orientation and orbit altitude. Henceforth, all crews arriving on the Shuttle during work on board the station will no longer rely on the systems of the American spacecraft, but on the life support of the ISS itself. And the Star guarantees it.

“The docking of the Russian module and the station took place approximately at an altitude of 370 kilometers above the surface of the planet,” Vladimir Rogachev writes in the Echo of the Planet magazine. - At this moment, the spacecraft raced at a speed of about 27 thousand kilometers per hour. The operation carried out earned the highest marks from experts, once again confirming the reliability of Russian equipment and the highest professionalism of its creators. As Sergei Kulik, a representative of Rosaviakosmos, who is in Houston, stressed in a telephone conversation with me, both American and Russian specialists were well aware that they were witnessing a historic event. My interlocutor also noted that specialists from the European Space Agency, who created the Zvezda central on-board computer, also made an important contribution to ensuring docking.

Then Sergei Krikalev picked up the phone, who, as part of the first long-stay crew starting from Baikonur at the end of October, will have to settle in the ISS. Sergei noted that everyone in Houston was waiting for the moment of contact with the spacecraft with great tension. Especially since after turning on auto mode docking, there was very little that could be done “from the side”. The accomplished event, the cosmonaut explained, opens the prospect for the deployment of work on the ISS and the continuation of the manned flight program. In essence, this is “..the continuation of the Soyuz-Apollo program, the 25th anniversary of the completion of which is celebrated these days. The Russians have already flown on the Shuttle, the Americans on the Mir, and now a new stage is beginning.”

Maria Ivatsevich, representing the Research and Production Space Center named after M.V. Khrunicheva, especially noted that the docking, which was completed without any failures and remarks, "became the most serious, key stage of the program."

The result was summed up by the commander of the first planned long-term expedition to the ISS, American William Sheppard. “Obviously, the torch of competition has now passed from Russia to the US and other partners of the international project,” he said. “We are ready to take on this load, realizing that it is up to us to maintain the station’s construction schedule.”

In March 2001, the ISS was nearly hit by space debris. It is noteworthy that it could be rammed by a part from the station itself, which was lost during a spacewalk by astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms. As a result of the maneuver, the ISS managed to avoid the collision.

For the ISS, this was not the first threat posed by debris flying in outer space. In June 1999, when the station was still uninhabited, there was a threat of its collision with a fragment of the upper stage of a space rocket. Then the specialists Russian Center flight control, in the city of Korolev, managed to give the command to maneuver. As a result, the fragment flew past at a distance of 6.5 kilometers, which is minuscule by space standards.

Now the American Mission Control Center in Houston has demonstrated its ability to act in a critical situation. After receiving information from the Space Tracking Center about the movement of space debris in orbit in the immediate vicinity of the ISS, Houston specialists immediately gave the command to turn on the engines of the Discovery spacecraft docked to the ISS. As a result, the orbit of the stations was raised by four kilometers.

If it had not been possible to perform the maneuver, then the flying part could damage, first of all, the solar panels of the station in the event of a collision. The body of the ISS cannot penetrate such a fragment: each of its modules is reliably covered by anti-meteorite protection.

Selection of some parameters of the orbit of the International Space Station. For example, the station can be located at an altitude of 280 to 460 kilometers, and because of this, it constantly experiences a braking effect. upper layers the atmosphere of our planet. Every day, the ISS loses about 5 cm/s of speed and 100 meters of altitude. Therefore, periodically it is necessary to raise the station, burning the fuel of ATV and Progress trucks. Why can't the station be raised higher to avoid these costs?

The range laid down during the design and the current real situation are dictated by several reasons at once. Every day, astronauts and cosmonauts, and beyond the 500 km mark, its level rises sharply. And the limit for a six-month stay is set at only half a sievert, only a sievert is allocated for the entire career. Each sievert increases the risk of cancer by 5.5 percent.

On Earth, we are protected from cosmic rays by the radiation belt of our planet's magnetosphere and atmosphere, but they work weaker in near space. In some parts of the orbit (the South Atlantic anomaly is such a spot of increased radiation) and beyond it, strange effects can sometimes appear: flashes appear in closed eyes. These are cosmic particles passing through the eyeballs, other interpretations say that the particles excite the parts of the brain responsible for vision. This can not only interfere with sleep, but once again unpleasantly reminds you of high level radiation on the ISS.

In addition, the Soyuz and Progress, which are now the main crew change and supply ships, are certified to operate at an altitude of up to 460 km. The higher the ISS is, the less cargo can be delivered. The rockets that send new modules to the station will also be able to bring less. On the other hand, the lower the ISS, the more it slows down, that is, more of the delivered cargo should be fuel for the subsequent correction of the orbit.

Scientific tasks can be performed at an altitude of 400-460 kilometers. Finally, the position of the station is affected by space debris - failed satellites and their debris, which have a huge speed relative to the ISS, which makes a collision with them fatal.

There are resources on the Web that allow you to monitor the parameters of the orbit of the International Space Station. You can get relatively accurate current data, or track their dynamics. At the time of this writing, the ISS was at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers.

The elements located at the rear of the station can accelerate the ISS: these are Progress trucks (most often) and ATVs, if necessary, the Zvezda service module (extremely rare). In the illustration, a European ATV is working before the kata. The station is raised often and little by little: the correction occurs about once a month in small portions of the order of 900 seconds of engine operation, the Progress uses smaller engines so as not to greatly affect the course of experiments.

The engines can turn on once, thus increasing the flight altitude on the other side of the planet. Such operations are used for small ascents, since the eccentricity of the orbit changes.

A correction with two inclusions is also possible, in which the second inclusion smoothes the station's orbit to a circle.

Some parameters are dictated not only by scientific data, but also by politics. It is possible to give the spacecraft any orientation, but at launch it will be more economical to use the speed that the rotation of the Earth gives. Thus, it is cheaper to launch the device into an orbit with an inclination equal to the latitude, and maneuvers will require additional expense fuel: more for movement to the equator, less for movement to the poles. An ISS orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees may seem odd: NASA spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral traditionally have an inclination of about 28 degrees.

When the location of the future ISS station was discussed, it was decided that it would be more economical to give preference to the Russian side. Also, such orbital parameters allow you to see more of the Earth's surface.

But Baikonur is at a latitude of approximately 46 degrees, so why is it common for Russian launches to have an inclination of 51.6 degrees? The fact is that there is a neighbor to the east who will not be too happy if something falls on him. Therefore, the orbit is tilted to 51.6 °, so that during launch, no parts of the spacecraft could under any circumstances fall on China and Mongolia.

> 10 facts you didn't know about the ISS

Most Interesting Facts about the ISS(International Space Station) with a photo: the life of astronauts, you can see the ISS from Earth, crew members, gravity, batteries.

International space station(ISS) is one of the greatest achievements of all mankind in terms of the level of technology in history. The space agencies of the USA, Europe, Russia, Canada and Japan united in the name of science and education. It is a symbol of technological excellence and shows how much we can achieve when we work together. Listed below are 10 facts you may not have heard about the ISS.

1. The ISS celebrated its 10th anniversary of continuous human operation on November 2, 2010. Starting from the first expedition (October 31, 2000) and docking (November 2), 196 people from eight countries visited the station.

2. The ISS can be seen from Earth without the use of technology, and it is the largest artificial satellite ever orbiting our planet.

3. From the first Zarya module, launched at 1:40 am ET on November 20, 1998, the ISS completed 68,519 Earth orbits. Her odometer reads 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion km).

4. As of November 2, 103 launches were made to the cosmodrome: 67 Russian vehicles, 34 shuttles, one European and one Japanese ship. 150 spacewalks were made to assemble the station and keep it running, which took over 944 hours.

5. The ISS is operated by a crew of 6 astronauts and cosmonauts. At the same time, the program of the station ensures the continuous presence of man in space since the launch of the first expedition on October 31, 2000, which is approximately 10 years and 105 days. Thus, the program has kept the current record, beating the previous mark of 3664 days set aboard the Mir.

6. The ISS serves as a research laboratory equipped with microgravity conditions, in which the crew conducts experiments in the field of biology, medicine, physics, chemistry and physiology, as well as astronomical and meteorological observations.

7. The station is equipped with huge solar panels, which measures 827,794 pounds (275,481 kg) and covers the US football field, including the end zones. The complex has a habitable room (like a five bedroom house) equipped with two bathrooms and a gym.

8. 3 million lines of code software on Earth, 1.8 million lines of flight code are supported.

9. A 55-foot robotic arm is capable of lifting 220,000 feet of weight. For comparison, this is how much an orbital shuttle weighs.

10. Acres of solar panels provide 75-90 kilowatts of power for the ISS.

April 12 is Cosmonautics Day. And of course, it would be wrong to bypass this holiday. Moreover, this year the date will be special, 50 years since the first manned flight into space. It was on April 12, 1961 that Yuri Gagarin accomplished his historic feat.

Well, a man in space cannot do without grandiose superstructures. This is exactly what the International Space Station is.

The dimensions of the ISS are small; length - 51 meters, width together with trusses - 109 meters, height - 20 meters, weight - 417.3 tons. But I think everyone understands that the uniqueness of this superstructure is not in its size, but in the technologies used to operate the station in open space. The height of the ISS orbit is 337-351 km above the earth. Orbital speed - 27700 km / h. This allows the station to make a complete revolution around our planet in 92 minutes. That is, every day the astronauts who are on the ISS meet 16 sunrises and sunsets, 16 times night follows day. Now the ISS crew consists of 6 people, and in general for the entire period of operation the station received 297 visitors (196 different people). The start of operation of the International Space Station is November 20, 1998. And at the moment (04/09/2011) the station has been in orbit for 4523 days. During this time, it has evolved quite a lot. I suggest you verify this by looking at the photo.

ISS, 1999.

ISS, 2000.

ISS, 2002.

ISS, 2005.

ISS, 2006.

ISS, 2009.

ISS, March 2011.

Below I will give a diagram of the station, from which you can find out the names of the modules and also see the docking points of the ISS with other spacecraft.

The ISS is an international project. 23 states participate in it: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg(!!!), Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, USA, Finland, France, Czech Republic , Switzerland, Sweden, Japan. After all, to financially overpower the construction and maintenance of the functionality of the International Space Station alone is beyond the power of any state. It is not possible to calculate the exact or even approximate costs for the construction and operation of the ISS. The official figure has already exceeded 100 billion US dollars, and if you add all the side costs here, you get about 150 billion US dollars. This is already making the International Space Station the most expensive project throughout the history of mankind. And based on the latest agreements between Russia, the United States and Japan (Europe, Brazil and Canada are still in thought) that the life of the ISS has been extended until at least 2020 (and possibly a further extension), the total cost of maintaining the station will increase even more.

But I propose to digress from the numbers. After all, in addition to scientific value, the ISS has other advantages. Namely, the ability to evaluate pristine beauty our planet from the height of the orbit. And it is not necessary for this to go into outer space.

Because the station has its own observation deck, the glazed Dome module.

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most significant international space projects, the largest artificial inhabited Earth satellite - the International Space Station (ISS). 20 years ago, on January 29, an Agreement on the creation of a space station was signed in Washington, and already on November 20, 1998, the construction of the station began - the Proton launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the first module - the functional cargo block (FGB) "Zarya ". In the same year, on December 7, the second element of the orbital station, the Unity connecting module, was docked with FGB Zarya. Two years later, a new addition to the station was the Zvezda service module.

On November 2, 2000, the International Space Station (ISS) began its work in a manned mode. Spaceship Soyuz TM-31 with the crew of the first long-term expedition docked with the service module Zvezda.The rendezvous of the ship with the station was carried out according to the scheme that was used during flights to the Mir station. Ninety minutes after docking, the hatch was opened and the ISS-1 crew stepped aboard the ISS for the first time.The ISS-1 crew included Russian cosmonauts Yuri GIDZENKO, Sergey KRIKALEV and American astronaut William Shepherd.

Arriving at the ISS, the cosmonauts carried out re-mothballing, retrofitting, launching and tuning the systems of the Zvezda, Unity and Zarya modules and established communication with mission control centers in Korolev and Houston near Moscow. Within four months, 143 sessions of geophysical, biomedical and technical research and experiments were performed. In addition, the ISS-1 team provided dockings with the Progress M1-4 (November 2000), Progress M-44 (February 2001) cargo spacecraft and the American Endeavor shuttles (December 2000) , Atlantis ("Atlantis"; February 2001), Discovery ("Discovery"; March 2001) and their unloading. Also in February 2001, the expedition team integrated the Destiny laboratory module into the ISS.

On March 21, 2001, with the American space shuttle Discovery, which delivered the crew of the second expedition to the ISS, the crew of the first long-term mission returned to Earth. The landing site was the J.F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.

In subsequent years, the Quest lock chamber, the Pirs docking compartment, the Harmony connection module, the Columbus laboratory module, the Kibo cargo and research module, the Poisk small research module, Tranquility Residential Module, Dome Observation Module, Rassvet Small Research Module, Leonardo Multifunctional Module, BEAM Convertible Test Module.

Today, the ISS is the largest international project, a manned orbital station used as a multi-purpose space research complex. The space agencies ROSCOSMOS, NASA (USA), JAXA (Japan), CSA (Canada), ESA (European countries) are participating in this global project.

With the creation of the ISS, it became possible to perform scientific experiments in unique conditions microgravity, in vacuum and under the influence of cosmic radiation. The main areas of research are physical and chemical processes and materials in space, Earth exploration and space exploration technologies, man in space, space biology and biotechnology. Considerable attention in the work of astronauts on the International Space Station is given to educational initiatives and the popularization of space research.

ISS is a unique experience of international cooperation, support and mutual assistance; construction and operation in near-Earth orbit of a large engineering structure which is of paramount importance for the future of all mankind.