The International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) has had an uninterrupted human presence since the 2nd of November, 2000. Since then, more than 160 scientists and engineers from sixteen different partner nations have visited the internationally developed research facility.
The ISS is still under construction. Its on-orbit construction began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015. Beyond that date, the future of the ISS is still under consideration.
The ISS is the largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit and it can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye. It serves as a long-term research laboratory in space, with experiments in fields including biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology being carried out daily in the station's microgravity environment.
Assembly has been going on ever since Zarya, the first module of the station, was launched in 1998 by Russia. The ISS consists of a complex of pressurised modules, external trusses and other components being launched by American Space Shuttles and Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets. As of November 2009, the station consisted of eleven pressurised modules and an extensive integrated truss structures.
The ISS is powered by sixteen large solar arrays mounted on the external truss, in addition to four smaller arrays on Russian modules. Its orbit is maintained between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) above the Earth.
The presence of a permanent crew offers benefits over unmanned spacecraft. Experiments can be monitored, replenished, repaired or replaced as required by the crew, as can other components of the spacecraft itself. Thanks to the relative proximity of the ISS, scientists on the ground have swift access to their data and can modify experiments or launch new ones as and when required.
“The International Space Station allows many nations to live and work together in space.”
Part of the crew's mission is educational outreach and international cooperation. The crews of the ISS provide educational opportunities for students back home on Earth, which include a wide range of experiments, demonstrations and classroom activities.
The ISS programme itself, and the international cooperation that it represents, allows many nations to live and work together in space, providing important lessons that can be applied to future multi-national missions.
For nearly a decade, men and women from around the world have carried out important scientific research in orbit high above the Earth, travelling at an average speed of 27,724 kilometres (17,227 miles) per hour. And they have done it wearing the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional X-33, a watch developed to NASA's strict requirements with the help of astronauts and professional pilots, which has proven its reliability repeatedly as the official watch of the ISS.
