The International Space Station (ISS) is an engineering marvel and a true example of what countries of the world can accomplish when working together. The International Space Station is a joint project among the countries of the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, and several European countries.

The research facility is a satellite, being assembled in stages about 219 miles above the earth’s surface. It is traveling at the speed of 17,240 miles per hour and makes nearly sixteen orbits around the Earth each day. The ISS was launched on November 20, 1998. The first permanent crew of astronauts arrived on the International Space Station on November 2, 2000. Since then, there have always been at least two people on board, giving humans a permanent presence in space. Shuttles to resupply the Space Station and rotate astronauts have occurred about every six months since the year 2000. To date, the astronauts that have manned the station have been either Russian or American. However, the Space Station has been visited by astronauts from fourteen countries.

The next visit to the Space Station is scheduled for Thursday, October 25, 2007. The launch of a space shuttle named Discovery is a scheduled event in Florida for Tuesday, October 23, 2007. Discovery's seven-astronaut crew will deliver a new connecting node to the ISS that will serve as the foundation for the future arrival of its international laboratories. The astronauts will also move an older solar array segment and test shuttle heat shield repair techniques during the five space walks planned during their 14-day mission.

The purpose of the International Space Station is to provide experimentation in space. The ISS has had minimal experimentation to date, but that is about to change with the addition of the Columbus module (with the STS-122 Shuttle launch) on December 6, 2007. This space laboratory is Europe’s single biggest contribution to the station. It is built to last ten years and will enable thousands of space experiments. It should provide a generic laboratory as well as facilities designed for specialized research in biology, biomedical research, fluid/quantum physics, and cosmology. A major goal of the research is to improve our understanding of the effect of long-term space exposure on the human body. Areas such as muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fluid shifts are scheduled to be studied with the intention to utilize this data so space colonization and lengthy space travel can become feasible.

Columbus will be followed by the Japanese Experiment Module also known as Kibō. It is scheduled to be in installed as part of the International Space Station (after the STS-127 launch) around January, 2009. This module is being developed to function as an observatory and to measure various astronomical data.

The ExPRESS Logistics Carrier, developed by NASA, is set to be launched for the ISS (with the STS-129 mission), in the fall of 2009. This module allows experiments to be deployed and conducted in the vacuum of space and will provide the necessary electricity and computing to locally process data from experiments.

The Multipurpose Laboratory Module is expected to launch for the ISS in late 2009. It will supply the proper resources for general micro gravity experiments and complete the facility. The International Space Station’s orbital platform is then scheduled to provide ongoing experimentation from these various laboratories until the year 2015.

What happens after 2015 has led to a disagreement among the project’s partners. The United States insists it will pull out of the station at the end of 2015. However, Russia and Europe want its life prolonged. NASA administrator Michael Griffin has told Space Station partners that the US agency has no plans for "utilization and exploitation" of the science research lab for more than five years after it is completed. NASA, which argues that the time has come to look beyond the station to other platforms including a base on the moon, contributes nearly seventy percent of the bill for the orbital platform. The U.S. space agency has projected its own annual bill for the project to reach 2.3 billion dollars by 2010. That may well limit the station's life to the five years the partners agreed to keep it running after it is fully operational.

The development of the International Space Station is entering its final phase over the next two years. The Discovery mission in October 2007 will provide the final construction prior to the launch of the Columbus laboratory module on December 6, 2007. All future laboratory modules will be attached to the ISS by the end of 2009.

It will be interesting to track the progress of the International Space Station as each of the laboratory modules are launched and attached to the orbital platform. The attachment of these laboratories to the ISS will lead to various experiments that will provide a better understanding of the next frontier, outer space.

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Update on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 04:42PM by Jim Smith

Interesting results of an experiment performed last year on a mission to service the International Space Station. The experiment involved germs in space:

It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. But it really happened.

The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006. The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along — carefully wrapped — for the ride.

The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.

"Wherever humans go, microbes go — you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change," explained Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.

Update on Monday, November 5, 2007 at 06:14AM by Jim Smith

Astronauts repair solar wing during a risky space walk on the International Space Station:

NASA astronauts have successfully repaired a damaged solar wing at the International Space Station. The operation was completed Saturday, after being postponed twice so engineers could further study how to accomplish the risky mission, which posed the danger of electrocuting the astronaut doing the repairs.

Astronaut Scott Parazynski, an experienced spacewalker, performed the repairs on the torn solar wing outside the International Space Station. He was assisted by Astronaut Doug Wheelock who was positioned at the base of the solar wing and offered guidance.

NASA said repairing the wing was a top priority because the solar panel is necessary for powering equipment for future space missions.

Parazynski rode the station's robotic arm up to the damaged area of the wing on the farthest end of the Space Station. Once in place he took on the dangerous and difficult task of repairing the damaged panel. The solar panel captures sunlight to generate electricity and is alive with more than 100 volts of power that engineers cannot turn off.