The worldwide Space Station – the manned satellite that constantly circles the Earth in low orbit – clocked up 15 years of continuous occupation on Monday. The cost was eventually expanded to $ 100 billion & the official completion date was pushed to 2011. NASA said astronauts working in space for long periods may experience bone damage, restricted cardiovascular conditioning and muscle deterioration. I once asked former space station program manager Mike Suffredini what they were going to name it and he told me ABC News could name it. I have saved that video as you can imagine.
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“I believe the station should be considered the blueprint for peaceful global cooperation”, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a press release.
When it comes to similar projects in the future, commercial space stations should not be ruled out, Kelly said at the conference, adding that it is doable.
Bolden said the work conducted aboard the ISS has a significant influence on NASA’s attempt to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.
NASA has an ISS 15th anniversary website with interesting numbers and facts about the 15 years humans have lived in space, including all the badges from the 45 expeditions to the space station. “A lot of those [science experiments] are critical to our understanding of how human physiology adapts to this microgravity environment and the things that we need to do to protect human health for a long trip to Mars”.
“The object had matched its speed with the space station”.
Now, 15 years later, Shepherd’s focus is on the future and how what he helped start might influence what happens next.
According to Kelly, the most important experiment on the station is the ongoing investigation into how spaceflight affects human physiology and psychology. On November 6, Friday, the 190th spacewalk will be scheduled where astronauts Scot Kelly and Kjell Lindgren will venture out again in space.
Except for ISS all other space shuttles have names such as Atlantis, Discovery, Columbia, Challenger and Endeavour.
Over the years the ISS has grown with the addition of modules and solar panels.
“It’s something that I would really love to see a few day”, he said.
In the 15 years since it’s launch, the worldwide Space Station has been host to 200 people from 15 countries.
The station, a partnership between the European Space Agency, Nasa, the Japanese Space Agency, Roscosmos and the Canadian Space Agency, is now expected to remain operational at least until 2024.
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Station activities don’t tend to garner broad day-to-day interest unless problems arise, as when three different resupply missions failed over an eight-month span through this summer. Children that are entering high school right now have never been in a world in which people didn’t live or work in space. “Everyone is important here and the success of the program, and sometimes even life, depends on what each and every one of us does”, he told journalists.
