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International Space Station (ISS)

2021 APR 26

Preliminary   > Science and Technology   >   Space technology   >   Space organisations & missions

About ISS:

  • The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit.
  • It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
  • The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
  • The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields.
  • The ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations and the U.S. Skylab.
  • It is the largest artificial object in space and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit, regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth's surface.
  •  It maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometres and circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.
  • The station is divided into two sections: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is operated by Russia, while the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) is run by the United States as well as many other nations.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding International Space Station:
1.NASA and Russian Space agency are the sole participants in the project.
2.It is the first Inhabited international space station.
Choose the correct statements from the codes given below:
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to Prelims question