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PARTNERSHIPS
International Collaboration in Low-Earth Orbit and Beyond
BY CRAIG COLLINS
International cooperation is the new norm in space. While International Space Station crewmembers have all been citizens of the 14 governments who signed the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on Space Station Cooperation in January 1998 – the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and ten member states of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) – the station, as of the summer of 2018, has hosted 227 visitors from 18 different countries. Experiments from more than 100 countries have been carried out on the ISS. According to NASA, more than 60 international space agencies increasingly work together in a broad range of space activities.
The IGA, and the memoranda of understanding that followed, established the cooperative framework for the construction and utilization of the International Space Station (ISS). It was a historic document, establishing one of the most ambitious international collaborations ever attempted, but in many ways it can be seen not as the beginning of a new era in space exploration, but rather as a culmination of long-established working partnerships, some dating nearly to the beginning of the world’s space programs. The partner agencies of the ISS, and their essential contributions to long-term space exploration, include:
STS-131 and Expedition 23 crewmembers gathered for a group portrait in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Discovery remained docked with the station. STS-131 crewmembers pictured (light blue shirts) are NASA astronauts Alan Poindexter, commander; James P. Dutton Jr., pilot; and Clayton Anderson, Rick Mastracchio, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, all mission specialists. Expedition 23 crewmembers pictured are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, commander, and Mikhail Kornienko and Alexander Skvortsov; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi; and NASA astronauts T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, all flight engineers.
STS-131 and Expedition 23 crewmembers gathered for a group portrait in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Discovery remained docked with the station. STS-131 crewmembers pictured (light blue shirts) are NASA astronauts Alan Poindexter, commander; James P. Dutton Jr., pilot; and Clayton Anderson, Rick Mastracchio, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, all mission specialists. Expedition 23 crewmembers pictured are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, commander, and Mikhail Kornienko and Alexander Skvortsov; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi; and NASA astronauts T.J. Creamer and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, all flight engineers.
THE CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY
Canadian upper atmospheric and space research dates to the 1950s, and its collaborations with both the American and European space programs date to the 1960s. The first satellite built by a country other than the United States or Soviet Union was Canada’s Alouette 1, launched by NASA from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in 1962. The success of Alouette 1 and ensuing U.S./Canadian satellite launches led NASA, in 1969, to invite Canada’s participation in the Space Shuttle Program. The first Canadian-built Shuttle Remote Manipulation System, or Canadarm, the robotic arm used to deploy and retrieve shuttle payloads, was delivered in 1981.
The first Canadian in space, astronaut Marc Garneau, served as a payload specialist aboard Challenger in October 1984. In 1999, astronaut Julie Payette became the first Canadian to board the ISS; the first Canadian to command the station, Chris Hadfield, took command of Expedition 35 in December 2012.
Canada’s critical contribution to the ISS is the Mobile Servicing System (MSS), a sophisticated robotics system used in the assembly, maintenance, and resupply of the ISS. A successor to Canadarm, the MSS consists of three components:
• The Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), or Canadarm2, a 58-footlong robotic arm with seven motorized joints, capable of handling payloads up to 256,000 pounds. Canadarm2 was used to berth and assemble ISS modules in space, and is regularly used to move supplies and equipment as well as to capture free-flying spacecraft and dock them to the ISS. Latching end effectors (LEEs, the “hands” at either end of Canadarm2) allow the arm to grip specialized fixtures on the station, spacecraft, and moveable components.
• The Mobile Base System (MBS), a base platform for Canadarm2. The platform glides on rails mounted along the main truss of the ISS, allowing Canadarm2 to be used anywhere along the length of the station.
• The Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), or Dextre, a smaller two-armed robot that can attach to Canadarm 2, the MBS, or to the ISS itself. Capable of using several tools on the end of either arm, Dextre is a multipurpose robot, capable of repairs, maintenance, or moving and installing replaceable units on the station’s exterior.
The MSS, along with the rest of Canada’s space program, is administered from Canadian Space Agency Headquarters at the John H. Chapman Space Centre in Longueuil, Quebec.
THE JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLO- RATION AGENCY (JAXA)
Japan launched its space program in 1969, shortly before the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and by 1985 three of its astronauts had been selected for participation in the Space Shuttle Program. Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut in space, was a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992. In 2009, Koichi Wakata became the first Japanese ISS crewmember, serving as a flight engineer on Expeditions 18, 19, and 20; he would later become the first Japanese commander of the ISS, when he took charge of Expedition 39 in March 2014.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) highest-profile contribution to the ISS is the station’s largest single module: the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) or Kibo, Japanese for “Hope.” The JEM/Kibo, a complex of modules and parts, was launched over three Space Shuttle flights in 2007 and 2008. It consists of two research facilities: the 37-foot-long Pressurized Module, which provides a shirtsleeve research environment, and the Exposed Facility, a platform with 12 attachment points for experiment payloads, samples, and spare items. A pressurized Experiment Logistics Module sits atop the Pressurized Module and provides storage.
The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) section of the International Space Station. At left is the Exposed Facility. Atop the longer cylinder of the Pressurized Module is the Experiment Logistics Module.
NASA PHOTO
Kibo is equipped with its own robotic arm and a scientific airlock, both of which allow astronauts to exchange experiment payloads or hardware from the Pressurized Module.
JAXA made its first cargo delivery to the ISS in 2009, when an H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) delivered about 7,400 pounds of equipment and supplies. HTVs are automated cargo craft for resupplying Kibo and the ISS and are expendable: After unloading, they’re loaded with items/hardware no longer needed onboard, unberthed, deorbited, and sent back to Earth, where they incinerate on atmospheric reentry. As of September 2018, seven HTVs have been launched aboard Mitsubishi-built H-IIB rockets from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.
It was an HTV that delivered Japan’s first robot astronaut, Kirobo, to the ISS in August 2013 as a technology demonstration experiment. Kirobo, equipped with software enabling facial recognition, voice and speech recognition, language processing, and speech synthesis, was designed to evaluate how well humans and robots can interact in space, with an eye toward a greater robotic role in future space missions.
In June 2017, a Dragon spacecraft brought a new Japanese-made experimental device to the Kibo module: the JEM Ball Camera, or Int-Ball. An experimental ball camera, the 2-pound Int-Ball floats freely in ISS’s microgravity environment and is capable of using 12 small electric propellers to maneuver autonomously throughout the station. The Int- Ball’s cute-robot appearance has made it an item of public fascination, but its ability to transmit images and video in real time is already improving the efficiency of the ISS crew; JAXA has said its astronauts spend 10 percent of their working time photographing their findings, and typically there is a considerable delay between the time an image is captured and sent to Earth.
JAXA has administrative headquarters in Tokyo and other field centers throughout the country, but its primary operational centers are Tanegashima and the Tsukuba Space Center, north of Tokyo, where Kibo was developed and tested, where the Kibo Control Center is located, and where data and images – from the Int-Ball and other sources – are transmitted.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA)
Europe’s history of international collaboration in space dates to 1973, when an ESA predecessor, the European Space Research Organization, signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to build a science laboratory for use on Space Shuttle flights. The habitable Spacelab modules and their components were flown on 22 Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.
The first astronaut from an ESA member nation to fly in space was Ulf Merbold of Germany, who flew on the Spacelab-1 mission aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in November and December 1983. Merbold was actually the second German in space; Sigmund Jahn, of the former Soviet-bloc East Germany, rode a Soyuz capsule to the Russian Salyut 6 space station in 1978.
The European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4), “Albert Einstein,” about to dock to the orbital outpost on June 15, 2013, following a 10-day period of free-flight.
NASA PHOTO
RIGHT: The European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4), “Albert Einstein,” about to dock to the orbital outpost on June 15, 2013, following a 10-day period of free-flight. BE- LOW RIGHT: In the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 flight engineer, performs an ultrasound on European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, flight engineer, for the Spinal Ultrasound investigation.
The first European to board the ISS was Umberto Guidoni, a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Columbia who came aboard the station in 2001. Thomas Reiter became the first ESA astronaut to serve on an ISS crew in 2006, as part of Expeditions 13 and 14; and Frank De Winne, commander of Expedition 21, became the first European to command the ISS in 2009.
Europe’s largest contribution to the construction of the ISS is the Columbus Research Laboratory, which supports scientific and technological research in a microgravity environment with experiments in materials science, fluid physics, life science, and technology. The Columbus module is permanently berthed to Harmony (Node 2).
Two of the ISS’s connecting modules were built in Italy under a NASA/ESA agreement. Harmony (Node 2) serves as the connecting point for the Destiny, Kibo, and Columbus laboratories. With six berthing locations, it also provides ports for cargo vehicles, and is a utility hub for the station, providing electrical power, heating and cooling, and data and video exchange support. Permanent crew quarters – rack-sized staterooms for off-duty crewmembers – were added to Harmony to allow astronauts private spaces to sleep, groom, work, or relax.
In the International Space Station’s Columbus laboratory, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 flight engineer, performs an ultrasound on European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, flight engineer, for the Spinal Ultrasound investigation.
NASA PHOTO BY JIM GROSSMAN
Tranquility (Node 3), added in 2010, is another six-port node, mounted to the port side of Unity (Node 1). Its zenith (upper) port has been modified to become a parking spot for Dextre. Tranquility accommodates ISS air revitalization, oxygen generation, and water recovery systems, and also contains exercise equipment and a toilet for crewmembers.
From 2008 to 2015, ESA made cargo deliveries to the ISS with its Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs), launched from Ariane 5 rockets at the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana, and controlled from the ATV Control Center in Toulouse, France. The ATV was an autonomous logistical resupply vehicle, capable of navigating and docking with the ISS automatically. Like Japan’s HTV, the European vehicle was designed to be expendable.
Cargo was also delivered to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle, in reusable Italian-made containers known as Multipurpose Logistics Modules (MPLMs). With a design owing much to the earlier Spacelabs, the MPLMs were pressurized modules that allowed for the return of experiment payloads and other cargo to Earth. Just before the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011, one of the MPLMs, Leonardo, was converted into the Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM, which now provides about 77 cubic meters of total storage volume for equipment, experiments, and supplies.
NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Expedition 24 flight engineer, looks through a window in the Cupola of the International Space Station.
NASA PHOTO
One of the station’s most popular features among astronauts, the Cupola, was also manufactured for NASA and ESA in Italy. Named for the raised observation deck on a railroad caboose, the Cupola, mounted on Tranquility’s nadir (lower) berthing port, is the largest window ever used in space. Its seven panes provide an expansive panoramic view of the Earth, and each is equipped with a shutter to protect it from contamination and collisions with micrometeorites or orbital debris. Designed to house robotic workstations, the Cupola can accommodate two crewmembers simultaneously.
On the Earth below, key European ground facilities for administering the ISS include:
• The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwjik, the Netherlands. The largest ESA establishment, the ESTEC is responsible for the technical preparation and management of ESA space projects, of which ISS is a significant part.
• The Columbus Control Centre (Col-CC), at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. Col- CC controls and operates the Columbus laboratory and coordinates the operation of European experiments.
• The European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, Germany. The EAC is the home base for the European Astronaut Corps.
• Several User Support and Operation Centres (USOCs) are distributed throughout Europe, where personnel use and implement European ISS payloads – developing experimental procedures, for example, or exchanging experimental data with ISS scientists.
THE ROSCOSMOS STATE CORPORATION FOR SPACE ACTIVITIES (ROSCOSMOS)
Russia entered the ISS project in 1993 as the world’s leading expert in long-term space exploration: The Soviet Union launched the first manned space station in 1971 and built the first multi-module space station, Mir, which operated in low-Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001. The first spacewalk was conducted by cosmonaut Alexey Leonov in 1965, and the record for the longest single human spaceflight – 438 consecutive days – is held by Valery Polyakov, who served aboard Mir from January 1994 to March 1995.
Despite their intense Cold War rivalry, Russia and the United States began collaborating peacefully in space in 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, during which the Apollo Command/Service Module docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. The Shuttle-Mir program of the 1990s paved the way for collaboration on the ISS; the APAS-95 docking port developed to allow the Space Shuttle to berth with Mir is the same port used on the ISS to join Russian modules with American modules, as well as with other components and vehicles.
Backdropped by the blackness of space, the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft departs from the International Space Station carrying Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, Expedition 19/20 commander and Soyuz commander; NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, flight engineer; and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté. The Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have been vital to ISS operations.
NASA PHOTO
Russia laid the foundation for the ISS with the 1998 launch of Zarya, the Functional Cargo Block (FGB). The FGB is based on the first Soviet/Russian military space station design – Almaz – in the 1960s, the equivalent of the canceled U.S. DOD Manned Orbiting Laboratory. The design was later used for cargo resupply ships for Salyut 6 and 7, and then for modules on Mir. Zarya provided a self-contained center for power supply, communications, and attitude control; today the FGB is used primarily for storage and propellant storage. The Zvezda Service Module provided early living quarters and life support for ISS crewmembers, electrical power distribution, data processing, flight control, and propulsion. Zvezda, added in 2000, remains the structural and functional center of the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS, capable of supporting up to six crewmembers, with separate sleeping quarters for two, exercise equipment, a toilet and other hygiene facilities, and a galley with a refrigerator and freezer. Zvezda has three docking ports at its forward end.
The Expedition Six crewmembers, wearing Russian Sokol suits, pose for a crew photo in the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), or Zarya, on the International Space Station (ISS). Pictured are astronaut Donald R. Pettit (front), NASA ISS science officer; cosmonaut Nikolai M. Budarin (left back), flight engineer; and astronaut Kenneth D. Bowersox, mission commander.
NASA PHOTO
The pressurized docking compartment, Pirs, attaches to Zvezda’s nadir port. It provides a port for the docking of Soyuz and Progress vehicles and a staging area and hatch for spacewalks from the Russian segment. Pirs is equipped with an antenna for docking navigation and a manipulator boom for moving crew and cargo.
The Poisk, or Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2), is a near-twin to the Pirs module, attached to the zenith port of Zvezda. It provides spacewalk capability, a docking port for spacecraft, and additional space for scientific experiments, including power supply and data nodes for five external workstations. Three temporary internal workstations are located near the module’s windows.
Russian cosmonaut Elena Serova, Expedition 41 flight engineer, floats through the Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1 (MRM1) of the International Space Station.
NASA PHOTO
Rassvet, or Mini-Research Module 1 (MRM1), is docked to the nadir port of Zarya. Used primarily for cargo storage and as a docking port for visiting spacecraft, Rassvet, added to the ISS in 2010, is also equipped with eight internal workstations to enable service as a mini research laboratory. The exterior of Rassvet is outfitted to receive additional ISS components, including the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and Nauka, the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
Both Russian-built spacecraft – the crewed three-person Soyuz capsule and the unpiloted Progress cargo carrier – are launched on Soyuz rockets from Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan. Baikonur is the chief launch center for both vehicles; the Zarya and Zvezda were launched aboard more powerful Proton rockets from Baikonur.
The Soyuz spacecraft, which have been upgraded periodically since their first use in the mid-1960s, have been the ISS’s most reliable workhorses, capable of docking automatically with the station and remaining docked for up to 220 days. The Soyuz has been the only crewed spacecraft to visit the ISS since the end of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program in 2011.
In a typical year, the ISS is visited by three to four Progress spacecraft, resupply vehicles used to deliver dry cargo, propellant, water, and gas. Progress can either dock autonomously or be docked remotely by ISS crewmembers. Like the HTV and ATV, Progress is an expendable vehicle that is deorbited after service and incinerated on re-entry.
The Russian ISS segment is operated from Roscosmos’s Moscow Mission Control Center (TsUP), the primary facility for all Russian human spaceflight activities. The Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC), at Star City near Moscow, provides full-size simulators and training centers for all Russian cosmonauts, including g-force centrifuges, a planetarium for navigation training, and a water pool for simulated spacewalks.
THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA)
The ISS is the descendant of a plan first hatched by NASA engineers in the wake of the Apollo program: a permanently crewed Space Operations Center in low-Earth orbit, serviced by Space Shuttle orbiters. The ISS configuration can be traced to early designs of the Space Station Freedom concept, developed during the 1980s, and the American-built segments of the ISS truss structure, its solar arrays, and thermal radiators – along with many of the American, European, and Japanese modules – underwent rigorous integration testing at the Space Station Processing Facility, a three-story, 457,000-square-foot building at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Most of the U.S. modules, and the ISS Environmental Control and Life Support System, were developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Janet L. Kavandi, STS-104 mission specialist, connects cables and hoses from the newly installed Quest Airlock to Unity Node 1. Other STS- 104 and Expedition Two crewmembers are visible in the background working in the airlock.
NASA PHOTO
Like their Russian counterparts, American astronauts have participated in every one of the ISS’s first 56 expeditions; 51 U.S. astronauts have served aboard the station so far, and more than 140 Americans have visited the station.
The station’s basic structural and functional elements – the 12 segments of the 356-foot-long integrated truss assembly, electric power system, and guidance, navigation, and control system – were designed and built in the United States by lead contractor Boeing. The truss assembly provides attachment points for modules, solar arrays, thermal control radiators, external payloads, utility lines, and the rails for the Mobile Servicing System.
The first American module to be flown to the station was the Unity (Node 1) connector, a six-port cylinder berthed via a Pressurized Mating Adapter to Zarya’s forward port that provides a link between the Russian and American Orbital Segments. The first of the three connecting modules, Unity, is shorter than the other two nodes, and in addition to providing passage for crewmembers between the Russian and American segments, Unity carries essential resources such as environmental control systems (i.e., air quality and temperature control), electricity, data, and fluids. The 15-foot-long Unity contains about 50,000 mechanical items, 216 gas and fluid lines, and 121 electrical cables.
This image of the International Space Station and the docked Space Shuttle Endeavour, flying at an altitude of approximately 220 miles, was taken by Expedition 27 crewmember Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on May 23, 2011 (USA time). The pictures taken by Nespoli are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the International Space Station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Onboard the Soyuz were Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev; Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Coleman and Nespoli were both flight engineers. The three landed in Kazakhstan later that day, completing 159 days in space. This was the final mission of Endeavour.
NASA PHOTO
The U.S. laboratory module, Destiny, is berthed to Unity’s forward port. The primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads, the 28-footlong Destiny has a total of 24 racks (13 scientific payloads; 11 systems). Destiny’s experiments include investigations related to human life science, materials research, Earth observations, and commercial applications. The science equipment aboard Destiny includes the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for the ISS (MELFI). Before the arrival of the Cupola, the station’s best views of Earth could generally be found at Destiny’s 20-inch nadir window, where, in 2010, the Brazilian-made Window Observational Research Facility, or WORF, was installed to enable photographic research and imaging projects in the fields of geology, agriculture, ranching, and environmental or coastal changes. Destiny was named a U.S. National Laboratory in NASA’s 2005 Authorization Act.
The Quest Joint Airlock, a pressurized module designed to host spacewalks using both American and Russian space suits, is berthed to Unity’s starboard port. The primary airlock for the ISS, the Quest Airlock consists of two compartments: the equipment lock, for suit maintenance and refurbishment, and the crew lock, which is fitted with the hatch for spacewalk exit and entry.
Assembly of the ISS in low-Earth orbit was made possible by the cargo-lift capabilities of the Space Shuttle orbiters Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. From the launch of Unity (Node 1) on Dec. 4, 1998, to the program’s final flight, Atlantis’s delivery and return of the MPLM Rafaello in July 2011, the Space Shuttle played a critical role in assembling the largest structure ever built in space. Space Shuttles delivered many ISS crewmembers, as well as most of its modules and major components, including the truss segments and solar arrays. No space vehicle yet has come close to matching the Space Shuttle’s cargo capacity – a cargo bay 60 feet long and 15 feet wide (about the size of a school bus), capable of carrying up to 27,500 kilograms to low-Earth orbit. The shuttle was the only vehicle capable of returning payloads of significant size from the ISS.
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was installed on the International Space Station on April 16, 2016. Following extraction from SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, ground controllers installed the expandable module to the aft port of Tranquility. Astronauts will enter BEAM on an occasional basis to conduct tests to validate the module’s overall performance and the capability of expandable habitats.
NASA PHOTO
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) was installed on the International Space Station on April 16, 2016. Following extraction from SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, ground controllers installed the expandable module to the aft port of Tranquility. Astronauts will enter BEAM on an occasional basis to conduct tests to validate the module’s overall performance and the capability of expandable habitats.
NASA’s ISS-related ground facilities include Kennedy Space Center, where the ISS modules and the Space Shuttle orbiters were prepared and missions were coordinated, launched, and managed.
The ISS program itself is directed by the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, where Mission Control operates the U.S. Orbital Segment and manages activities across the ISS in coordination with international partners. JSC is the primary location for spacecraft design, development, mission integration, crew training, and administration of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program.
The ISS’s Payload Operations and Integration Center (POIC) at Marshall Space Flight Center is the headquarters for ISS science operations. POIC plans and controls the operations of U.S experiments, coordinates partner experiments aboard the station, and handles science communications with ISS crew.
Both Johnson and Marshall are home to Telescience Support Centers (TSCs) that provide around-the-clock operations support for science operations aboard the ISS. Additional TSCs are located at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Mountain View, California, and Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
THE KEY TO FUTURE LONG-TERM MISSIONS
Over the past decade, the ISS has been supported by a growing network of indi- viduals and organizations who view the station as an opportunity for growth. At the same time, the ISS is helping to foster private-sector innovation in space. The post-Space Shuttle era has seen the first private-sector cargo deliveries to the ISS, aboard the Dragon spacecraft, manufactured by SpaceX and launched from Falcon 9 rockets at Cape Canaveral, and Cygnus, made by Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) and launched aboard Antares rockets from Wallops Island, Virginia, and Atlas V rockets from Kennedy Space Center. A second phase of cargo resupply contracts was awarded in 2016 to SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Sierra Nevada Corporation for cargo delivery through 2024.
In August 2018, NASA presented the first post-Space Shuttle crew to launch from U.S. soil. In 2019, the world’s first private company astronaut will join a test flight and mission aboard an American-made spacecraft, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. The SpaceX Crew Dragon will also fly American astronauts, but the initial crew will be current NASA astronauts.
On its website, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the organization that coordinates U.S. research on the ISS National Laboratory, offers thanks to more than 40 “implementation partners” dedicated to promoting and sustaining space-based research. These partners include NanoRacks, a company that developed a standardized payload system and instrumentation that can be used by non-NASA researchers aboard the ISS.
It’s an unprecedented level of international and commercial collaboration in space, and NASA and its ISS partners – along with several other nations outside the ISS partnership – have begun to discuss a global partnership for human exploration of the solar system beyond low-Earth orbit, using a lunar space station, Gateway, as a staging point.
Establishing a presence on and around the Moon, with an eye toward Mars, will be a monumental undertaking, fraught with technical and logistical challenges that would be daunting for any agency to tackle alone.
Discussions about how to meet those challenges are still in the early stages among experts from NASA and potential domestic and international Gateway partners – and in time, this may represent one of the most important precedents established by the ISS project. In an interview marking the 20th anniversary of the IGA, Lynn Cline, NASA’s lead negotiator for the agreement and the former deputy association administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, reflected on the historical importance of the agreement: “ … it established a framework for all these countries to work together successfully for the long term. What I hope it will have as a legacy for the future is that it’s a stepping-stone in research, in human spaceflight, an evolution to the next step.”
As dramatically as the geopolitical environment has changed since the days of Sputnik, the peaceful uses of space have allowed the world’s best scientists and engineers to work across international lines and achieve astonishing things that, today, many people take for granted. When these partners achieve greater things, establishing a permanent human presence at the Moon and beyond, they’ll be building on a history that recorded the International Space Station as the flagship of peaceful international collaboration in space.
