Yerson Piero

International Space Station

The International Space station (IISS) is an orbiting research center and interpretation laboratory that synthesizes the scientific knowledge of 16 nations with the goal of maintaining a permanent outpost in space. In which the ESA on the part of Europe, NASA on the part of the US, the CSA on the part of Canada, JAXA on the part of Japan and Roscosmos on the part of Russia participate. The ISS serves to test and correct technological developments in topics such as life support, security, propulsion and all those technologies that one day can make humans return to the moon or go to Mars. Before trying to go further, everything is tested in Earth orbit and as a scientific laboratory where microgravity experiments are carried out, in a multitude of fields not related to space exploration.

The ISS was inaugurated on November 20, 1998, when the Zaryá control module was launched into space on the Russian Proton rocket. It was the first, the main and the largest piece, which was later joined by others such as the power battery and the fuel storage unit.

However, the history of the International Space Station had started much earlier. After man's arrival on the moon in 1969, the thirst to explore space continued. Then the Freedom space program was born, developed by NASA, the United States space agency. In 1984, the president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, announced that the government intended to develop a permanent orbital station.

In the following years, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese agency JAXA joined the project.

However, the initial prototype of the station had to be redesigned due to a lack of budget and difficulties in advancing the project. With so many governments involved, it was difficult to make decisions.

Finally, in September 1993, a program development plan (PIP) designed for the new ISS was drawn up. Once the Cold War (1947-1991), which faced two camps led by the United States and the Soviet Union, was over, both governments managed to put aside mistrust and cooperate.

Together with the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada, they have been involved in the creation of this ambitious research center in Earth orbit from the beginning.

Currently, the governments of 15 countries are working on and developing the ISS project: the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland. The ISS is one of the greatest achievements in engineering. Since 2000, it has been a permanently manned space station, in which teams of astronauts and researchers rotate.

In July of that year, the Zvezdá was added, a second service module that houses the station's life support systems: it controls the atmospheric pressure inside the ship, oxygen levels, water supply and waste management.

Months later the ITS Z1 structure was added, which allows communication with the Earth. On November 2, 2000, the first crew arrived. Four years later, the first spacewalk took place. In 2006, a piece of space debris passed within 2 kilometers of the ISS, endangering the station and its entire crew, who were about to be evacuated.

Over the years, various modules and solar panels have been added that make the ISS a laboratory, observatory and factory in low Earth orbit. As planned, the station will continue operations until at least 2024.