Ioonos

The story of a shared dream

NASA, the American Space Agency, had its first thoughts on a project for an orbiting space station in the 1960’s. Scientists wanted to make it a laboratory, a way station/service station for longer voyages, a store for equipment and an astronomic observatory. In 1973 a mini-station, Skylab, was meant to prove that such a project was possible. However, it was the cooperation of the Americans and the Russians on the Mir" >MIR station from 1993 that showed it was feasible to make compatible various technologies and cooperate internationally, particularly in docking the American shuttle to the Russian space station. The dream is possible!

1998: the world jigsaw puzzle championship is launched

On 20 November 1998 the first part of the ISS was put into orbit by the Russian Proton rocket launched from Baikonur. This module, named Zarya, was the control zone of the station and the initial source of propulsion and energy production, while waiting for the giant solar panels (over 4,000 sq.m), which were installed in 1999. That year the most spectacular elements of the station were also installed, the girders that acted as the structure. The first participation by the European Space Agency took place in July 2000 when the Europeans equipped the Russian Zarya module with IT equipment. And on 31 October 2000 Soyuz sent the first crew aboard ISS after it had been equipped with everything needed for survival on board, including toilets!

Between now and 2010: preparing for optimal use

The American shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis and the rockets Soyuz and Ariane make several trips a year to build the station. The European Space Agency’s participation is increasing, contributing a large amount of IT and electronics know-how. Scientists and logistics experts are also involved, since two major European contributions will be provided during 2007, the Columbus space laboratory and the ATV automatic transfer vehicle. In 2010 the ISS will be fully functional!