convert

National Aeronautics and
Space Administration

International Space Station: Assembly Complete

LG-1997-07-456-HQ

International Space Station:
Assembly Complete

The International Space Station (ISS) draws upon the resources
and the scientific and technological expertise of 15 cooperating
nations: the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, and 11 mem-
ber nations of the European Space Agency (ESA). The program
has three distinct phases, each building on the prior one and rep-
resenting new milestones and capabilities. Phase I involves stays
by U.S. astronauts aboard the Russian Mir space station, dock-
ings by the Space Shuttle with Mir, the building of a joint space
experience between the United States and Russia, and the perfor-
mance of scientific research on Mir as a precursor to research on
the ISS.

Phase II of the ISS program, construction in orbit, begins in June
1998 with the launch of the Functional Energy Block (FGB)
from Russia on a Russian Proton rocket. The 21-ton FGB was
built in Russia and purchased by the United States. It will pro-
vide attitude control and propulsion during the early assembly
operations, plus solar power and berthing ports for additional
modules. In July 1998, the U.S.-built Node 1 will be delivered by
the Space Shuttle and attached to the FGB, providing connection
ports for U.S. modules. Next, the first wholly Russian contribu-
tion, a component called the Service Module, which will provide
the first living quarters and life support systems, will be launched
from Russia in December 1998. After two more Space Shuttle
assembly flights, the first people, a three-person crew, will be
launched aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to spend five months
on the ISS. From that point on, the ISS will be permanently
inhabited. Phase II of the station’s assembly will be completed in
August 1999, at which point the ISS will be ready for full-scale
scientific research work to begin in a U.S. laboratory module.

Phase III of assembly will see the ISS progress gradually to its
ultimate status as a research facility with up to seven crew mem-
bers; laboratory modules supplied by Russia, Europe, Japan, and
the United States; and a robotic arm supplied by Canada. The
complete assembly sequence for the ISS calls for a total of
45 spaceflights launched by at least three different types of
vehicles—the Space Shuttle, the Russian
Proton rocket, and the Russian Soyuz
rocket.

The pressurized living and working
space aboard the completed ISS will
be roughly equivalent to the passenger
cabin volume of two 747 jetliners. The
atmospheric pressure in the ISS will
be 101 kilopascals, the same as on
Earth’s surface.

There will be six main laboratories.
The United States will provide one laboratory
and a habitation module that will replace and

supplement the Service Module’s early crew living quarters.
There will be two Russian research modules; one Japanese labo-
ratory called the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM); and one
ESA laboratory called the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF). The
U.S., ESA, and Japanese laboratories together will provide
33 International Standard Payload Racks for research equipment
and experiments. Additional research room will be available in
the Russian modules, connecting Nodes, and a Centrifuge
Accomodation Module (CAM). The JEM also has an exterior
“back porch” with 10 spaces for mounting experiments that need
to be exposed to space. The experiments will be set outside using
a small robotic arm on the JEM.

The central girder connecting the modules and the main solar
power arrays will be built by the United States and is called the
Integrated Truss Structure. The Canadian-built Remote Manip-
ulator System, a 55-foot robot arm and a grappling mechanism
called the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), will
move along the truss on a mobile base transporter to perform
assembly and maintenance work. The four solar arrays will rotate
on the truss to maximize their exposure to the Sun.

An emergency crew return vehicle, initially a Russian Soyuz
spacecraft and later a higher capacity vehicle currently under
development by NASA, which will always be docked with the
ISS while it is inhabited. In addition, a number of vehicles, both
with and without people aboard, will be constantly visiting the
ISS, including the Space Shuttle (U.S., piloted), Soyuz (Russian,
unpiloted), Progress resupply spacecraft (Russian, unpiloted),
H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV, Japanese, unpiloted), and
Autonomous Transfer Vehicle (ATV, European, unpiloted).

WEB SITE: http://station.nasa.gov

Facts and Figures

Wingspan End-to-End Width

356.4 feet (108.6 meters)

Length

262 feet (79.9 meters)

Mass (weight)

1,005,021 pounds
(456,620 kilograms)

Operating Altitude

220 nautical miles average
(407 kilometers)

Inclination

51.6 degrees to the Equator

Atmosphere

14.7 pounds per square inch
(101.36 kilopascals per square meter)
same as Earth

Crew Size

Up to seven people at assembly
complete

Major Milestones

Date

Payload/Milestone

6/98

First element launch—FGB on a
Proton rocket

7/98

Node 1 launches on a Space Shuttle

12/98

Russian Service Module launches
on a Proton rocket

1/99

First three-person crew launches on
a Soyuz rocket

5/99

U.S. Laboratory launches on a
Space Shuttle

6/99

Canadian Remote Manipulator
System launches on a Space Shuttle

1/00

First utilization flight

12/00

Universal Docking Module launches
on a Proton rocket

5/01

Japanese Experiment Module
launches on a Space Shuttle

6/02

Fifth utilization flight

TBD

ESA Columbus Orbital Facility

This illustration depicts the International Space Station in its completed and fully oper-

ational state with elements from the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, and

Russia.