International Space Station
From Slackerpedia Galactica
Contents |
Introduction
After Skylab blew up and Mir approached the end of its life cycle, NASA, the ESA, and other countries capable of chucking rockets into the sky all decided a new space station was needed - one of international cooperation and positive feeling. Almost immediately, the late President Reagan decided to call it "Freedom" to piss off the Commies. This name was changed to a less catchy "Alpha" after the fall of Russia. Now, it is typically dubbed the "International Space Station" by the media and this does not look to change until all the countries in the world pony up $1 trillion for a second international space station.
Present Status
Now online after the Space Shuttle tragedy, China's entry, and Russia's deteriorating space program and nearly a trillion dollars expense, its size is not rivaled by its small habitable space and cruddy air conditioning.
Impact on Science
With a new testbed for scientific experiments, astronomers and cosmologists alike may have something besides the Hubble Space Telescope to monkey around on. Although many of these experiments are about habitation of humans and other organisms in space, astronomy is still one of the focuses and may continue to be, depending on its advocacy from NASA and other sponsoring agencies.
Links
NASA Page on the International Space Station
European participation on ISS
Russian website of its contributions
Japanese webpage about the International Space Station
Wikipedia page on the ISS
