International Space Station

The X-38 research aircraft, used to develop the emergency crew return vehicle for the International Space Station, touches down on a dry lake bed at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. This, the fourth X-38 flight, as well as flying the craft for longer and at greater altitude than previously, tested an improved drogue parachute.

One of the first images of the entire International Space Station with its solar panels fully deployed. It was taken from the space shuttle Endeavour, which had just completed an hour-long undocking manoeuvre after nearly seven days at the space station.

Artist's view of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), one of five international research laboratories attached to the International Space Station. The cylindrical sections are the pressurized module (PM). The square units in the foreground below JEM's robot arm are the exposed facility (EF).

Logistics module Raffaello mated with the Unity module on the International Space Station. STS-100 pilot Jeffery Ashby used the shuttle Endeavour's robot arm to orientate Raffaello in the payload bay prior to docking.

The crew of space shuttle Atlantis (STS-106) examine the space habitation module (Spacehab) module prior to its installation in the shuttle cargo bay. The module can be used to for scientific experiments or as a logistics module, and has assisted with the outfitting of the International Space Station.

The space shuttle's remote manipulator system is used to move the US Destiny laboratory from the cargo bay of Atlantis. It was photographed by astronaut Thomas Jones on extravehicular activity during the manoeuvre.

X-38 research vehicle flights have been used to develop an emergency crew return vehicle for the International Space Station. The X-38 research aircraft is pictured here immediately after release from the wing pylon of the ‘mother ship’, a NASA B-52 air launch carrier aircraft.

430-tonne orbiting space station being constructed by the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and the 17 member nations of the European Space Agency. The final cost was expected to be more than US$90 billion. The complete station, orbiting at an altitude of around 378 km/235 mi, will measure 88.4 m/290 ft in length, 108.5 m/356 ft across its solar wings, and 43.6/143 ft in height. It is hoped that teams of up to seven astronauts will live and work for a period of three to six months in an area equivalent to the passenger cabins of two 747 jumbo jets, although a maximum of three crew members per mission is envisaged until at least 2007. The ISS was originally intended to be completed by 2004 or 2005; it is now scheduled for completion in 2010, after 45 launches and 160 space walks. It is expected to be used until at least 2016. The first crew arrived at ISS in November 2000 under the command of NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd.

In November 1998, the ISS's first component was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome; this was the Russian control module Zarya (Russian ‘sunrise’), providing initial propulsion and power. Unity, the six-sided US node (intersection point) that will connect the various modules was bolted on to Zarya the following month. Russia's Zvezda (Russian ‘star’) module, housing initial living quarters and flight controls, was connected in July 2000. The ‘Expedition One’ crew of three became the first long-term (four-month) residents on 2 November 2000 and chose their own name for the ISS: Space Station Alpha. In February 2001, NASA launched the US science laboratory module Destiny, the centrepiece of the station. In April, the ISS added the robotic Canadarm and was visited by US industrialist Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, who was reported to have paid around US$20 million to take part in the mission. By October 2001, the ISS was an estimated US$4.5 billion over budget. By 2004, it had reached a weight of 186,880 kg/412,000 lb with a habitable volume of 425 cu m/15,000 cu ft. Its width was 73 m/240 ft across solar arrays, the length 44.5 m/146 ft, and the height 27.5 m/90 ft. Shuttle flights to the ISS were interrupted after the Columbia disaster of February 2003. Another flight was made by the shuttle Columbia in July/August 2005, but because of safety worries, further flights were postponed for at least a year.

Zarya is 12.6 m/41.2 ft in length and 4.1 m/13.5 ft at its widest point; Zvezda is 13 m/43 ft long, with a wingspan of 30 m/98 ft. After Zvezda was connected, it took over propulsion and thruster controls from Zarya, which was then used mostly for its storage capacity and external fuel tanks. Unity serves as a conduit for essential resources running to the living and working areas, and contains more than 50,000 mechanical items, 216 fluid and gas lines, and 121 electrical cables using 9.7 km/6 mi of wire. Destiny, the first of six planned ISS research modules, will serve as the command and control centre. It is 8.5 m/28 ft long, with a widest point of 4.3 m/14 ft.