The now-retired Space Shuttle fleet delivered most of the large ISS components to orbit. Because the HTV berths at the Station like the cargo modules carried by the Shuttle, it can also carry large internal payload racks. Japan’s H-II Transfer Vehicle is unique among the unmanned visiting vehicles in its ability to carry both unpressurized and pressurized cargo. The European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle acts as an unmanned resupply and reboosting craft and docks on the Russian side. Soyuz has always been the primary crew transfer vehicle for the ISS and serves as a lifeboat for the crew on-board. Soyuz crew capsules and Progress unmanned cargo vehicles launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In 2013, a third robot arm produced by the European Space Agency will be launched with the Russian “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory Module.įive different vehicles have visited the Space Station. The Space Station is serviced by the self-traversing Canadian-built robot arm and its Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator attachment, a smaller robot arm attached to the Japanese Experiment Module, and two cargo cranes on the Russian segment. The final mission of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-135, was a cargo and support flight to the ISS. Discovery and the STS-133 crew delivered a pressurized cargo module to the Station that serves as a permanent storage area – the PMM. Node 3 and the Cupola were brought to the Station on STS-130 by the crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Today, we have thirteen pressurized modules on-orbit – including laboratories, airlocks, and crew living spaces – and a complete Integrated Truss Structure with all four US-built solar arrays providing power. Future expansions could include Russian multi-purpose modules and an inflatable test section. The only significant delays resulted from the 18-month gap between the Node 1 launch and delivery of the Zvezda module and the hiatus imposed after the loss of Columbia.

After the end of the Cold War, the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe agreed in the early 1990s to pool their resources and expertise to build one space station that everyone could share.īegun in November 1998, with the launch of the Zarya module on a Russian Proton rocket, the modular construction of the ISS is largely complete. Now the largest spacecraft ever built, the ISS grew out of the plans of these separate agencies to build their own space stations. The Space Station is a joint project of NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency. Before we discuss the scientific research and technology development on-orbit, let’s give the ISS itself a proper introduction.

International space station purpose