Current Space Missions (Part 2) Chapter 1 Current Space Missions (Part 2)

The International Space Station (ISS) Website: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/ Launch date: The first two modules were launched and joined together in 1998. The first crew arrived in November 2000. Mission: Through international cooperation, ISS’s mission is to serve as a platform for Earth and space observation, to perform experiments in a microgravity environment, and to study the effect of long-term travel on astronaut’s health.

The International Space Station (ISS) Accomplishments: ISS is the largest and most sophisticated spacecraft ever built. The station is currently made up of 15 major elements weighing over 200 tons. Upon completion it will weigh 450 tons and be about 120 yards long and 100 yards wide. The station has provided a continual human presence in space for over 4 years now.

The International Space Station (ISS) Accomplishments (cont): It has welcomed over 40 spacecraft including 16 shuttle missions. The International Space Station draws upon the resources and the scientific and technological expertise of 16 cooperating nations, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and the members of the ESA.

The International Space Station (ISS) Notables: Original plans when the station began to be built called for the station to be completed by the end of 2004 and cost 60 billion dollars. Instead construction expects to last now into 2010 at a much higher price. Apart for some minor work, construction on the ISS has been stopped until the space shuttle returns to service. The station is tentatively set to be retired in 2016.

The International Space Station (ISS) Update: The Expedition 10 crew -- Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov -- launched from Kazakhstan in Asia in October 2003 to begin its six-month mission in space. Chiao and Sharipov are continuing ISS science operations and maintaining station systems. They will also prepare the Station for the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight and conduct two spacewalks. The first of these will be on January 26 at 1am to perform work on the space station. It will last 5 1/2 hours.

The International Space Station (ISS) Update (cont): The station’s supplies are currently being replenished by unpiloted Progress cargo ships until the return of the space shuttle. Current location: The station is traveling at 17,500 mph at an orbit roughly 225 miles above the surface of the Earth.

The Hubble Telescope Website: http://hubble.nasa.gov/ Launch date: Hubble was launched in April 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle. Mission: To explore the history, characteristics, and evolution of celestial bodies and the universe.

The Hubble Telescope Accomplishments: Through its more than 400,000 observations, Hubble has provided data to thousands of scientific papers that have redefined our understanding of the universe. Notables: Since first reaching orbit, the telescope has received 4 service missions by the space shuttle fleet. The most notable occurred just a year after being placed in orbit to install “corrective lenses”.

The Hubble Telescope Update: At the beginning of this year, NASA gave a Canadian firm the green light to begin developing a robotic salvage mission to repair and upgrade the aging telescope. Current location: Orbiting 375 miles above the earth’s surface.

Deep Impact Launch date: January 12, 2005 Mission: The spacecraft will travel to comet Tempel 1. There it will release an "impactor" that is designed to collide with the comet and produce a crater the size of a football stadium. This maneuver should then allow instruments aboard the spacecraft to study material beneath the comet's surface.

Other Space Observatories SOHO, Ulysses, Cluster: Separately launched, they study various aspects of the sun. Chandra: Launched in 1999, it views the universe through x-ray light. Spitzer Space Telescope: Launched in 2003, Spitzer will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between particular wavelengths that are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.

Other Spacecraft Thousands of satellites (mostly belonging to the United States and Russia) currently orbit earth. They include: Weather satellites Military satellites Communication satellites Navigation satellites Scientific satellites