International Space Station : The International Space Station is the largest artificial object currently orbiting the earth as well as the most expensive single project in the history of space exploration; even surpassing the Apollo Moon Program. The International Space Station is a project involving five different primary space agencies, and more than 15 different countries. Primary space agencies include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Russian Federal Space Agency (now Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
In the early 1980s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had been operating a series of different space stations in low Earth orbit for many years, with the Salyut 6 station nearing the end of its life and the Salyut 7 station ready to replace it. To follow on this series of stations, the USSR was working on the design of the first modular space station for use in low Earth orbit, Mir.
At this time, the United States saw the Soviet space stations as a potential threat due to the ongoing Cold War. In 1984, the United States announced that they would be creating their own space station, to be named Freedom. This station would not just involve the United States, but they would invite their allies to help them, including ESA and the CSA. During the initial program definition phase of the new space station, political conflicts were constant with different groups each having specific requirements which needed to be included. This meant the in 1987 when the first cost estimates were presented to the United States government, the expected price tag of approximately $14 billion USD was considered to be impossible.
By 1988, the USSR had begun work on the replacement for the Mir space station, Mir-2. Construction was planned to start in 1993, using the Buran space plane. Before construction could begin, the USSR collapsed, and the new Russian Space Agency did not have the budget to justify such a project. In September of 1993, the two former Cold War enemies announced that they would be create a new, joint project. The International Space Station (ISS). On January 28 1998, the Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement was signed between the 15 participating governments.
Following this, first module of the ISS was launched in November of 1998. Originally intended for the Mir space station, the Russian Zarya (or Functional Cargo Block) provided the fledgling space station with electrical power, propulsion, guidance and communications for the initial phases of construction. With the addition of the American Unity module in December of 1998. The third block, and first section of life support for the space station wasn't launched until July of 2000, when the Zvezda Service Module was launched and docked with the previous two modules. Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, the ISS hasn't had any major expansions. Current agreements for the ISS are for it to continue to be used until 2024, with the majority of the station undergoing a controlled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere at that time.
Over the life of the project, cost estimates for the ISS range from 35 to 160 billion US Dollars, with different agencies indicating different estimated costs. ESA estimates total potential costs of the ISS to be in the range of 100 billion Euros, while NASA doesn't count the cost of the Space Shuttle flights used to assemble the station as part of the total costs.
Contributions from the Canadian Space Agency are estimated to be approximately 1.4 billion Canadian Dollars over a 20 year span.
Specifications:
Launched: 20-November-1998
COSPAR Id: 1998-067A
Length: 72.8 m
Width: 108.5 m
Height: ca. 20 m
Apogee: 416 km
Perigee: 409 km
Inclination: 51.65 degrees
Period: 92.69 minutes
Orbital decay: ca. 2 km per month
