Space travel - Nasa celebrates 25 years of ISS operation with a telephone ceremony
The US space agency Nasa celebrated the 25th anniversary of the start of work on the International Space Station (ISS) with a telephone ceremony. Nasa Deputy Chief Bob Cabana and ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano spent around half an hour on the phone on Wednesday with the astronauts and cosmonauts currently stationed on the ISS - seven men and women from the USA, Denmark, Japan and Russia.
The first two modules, "Unity" and "Zarya", were connected exactly 25 years ago on Wednesday (December 6). The Russian module "Zarya" had been launched into space around three weeks earlier. The current deputy head of Nasa, Cabana, was the first American to enter the ISS at the time. "I can't believe it was 25 years ago today that we grabbed Zarya and brought it together with Unity. Absolutely fantastic," he said during the telephone ceremony.
Since then, the human outpost has been orbiting the Earth 16 times a day at a distance of around 400 kilometers. The ISS is a joint project of the space agencies of Russia, Canada, Japan, Europe and the USA - created, among other things, as an international understanding project after the end of the Cold War.
Research has been carried out on the ISS without interruption since 2000
After the first two modules were connected, it grew more and more and is now about the size of a soccer pitch, a kind of 450-ton house with six bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym and a panoramic window.
Space travelers have been conducting research in this space laboratory without interruption since 2000. Matthias Maurer was the last German to be there from 2021 to 2022. The total costs have long been well over 100 billion dollars.
Despite maintenance, renovation and retrofitting, the ISS technology is no longer state of the art. There are constant reports of damage, faults, leaks and other problems. In addition, the current global political situation is not exactly making the operation of the ISS any easier. The ISS is one of the few objects where the Americans and Russians are still working together after the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February 2022.
There is a broad consensus that the ISS could still be operated jointly until the end of the decade. After that, it could crash into the Pacific in a controlled manner.
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The celebration marked 25 years since the connection of the 'Unity' and 'Zarya' modules, launched by Russia and the USA respectively. This joint venture between NASA, Russia, Canada, Japan, Europe, and Denmark has seen women and men from these countries participate in space travel on the ISS.
During the ceremony, NASA Deputy Chief Bob Cabana reminisced about the initial connection, expressing his awe at the milestone. The science conducted in this space laboratory has been ongoing since 2000, with Matthias Maurer being the latest German astronaut to contribute.
In the future, the ISS is expected to continue operation until the end of the decade, potentially crashing into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled descent thereafter. Despite challenges in maintenance, politics, and technology, international cooperation on the ISS persists, notably between NASA and Russia following the conflict in Ukraine.
Space travelers from various nations have been sustaining themselves in the ISS, which is as big as a football pitch and contains facilities like bedrooms, bathrooms, a gym, and a panoramic window. Research honors have been bestowed upon the ISS as a monumental achievement in international space science and diplomacy.
Continued operation beyond the 2030s may necessitate ambitious advances in space technology, given the aging equipment on the ISS. Funding for the project remains a significant concern, with costs having surpassed 100 billion dollars.
While debates about the future of space travel and ISS maintenance continue, the 25th anniversary celebration reiterates the importance of international collaboration in space exploration, which demonstrates that despite geopolitical differences, nations can come together in the pursuit of scientific advancement and discovery.
Source: www.stern.de
