Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level : International Space Station
Mains level : Utility of space stations
- Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is planning to launch its own space station.
The Indian Space Station
- A space station is an artificial satellite placed in orbit and is used as a long-term base for manned operations in space.
- The Indian space station would be stationed at an altitude of 400 kilometres from Earth.
- The proposed Indian space station would be similar to the International Space Station (ISS) but smaller in size weighing about 20 tonnes and would take another 5 to 7 seven years to construct.
- India would be the fourth country to launch a space station as the US and Russia has already launched their space stations and China is planning to launch its in 2020.
About the ISS
- The International Space Station, which launched its first piece in 1998, is a large spacecraft which orbits around the Earth and is home to the astronauts.
- The ISS is currently the only active space station in the earth’s orbit.
- The first crew on the space station arrived on November 2, 2000.
- The space station is home to minimum of six astronauts, with two bathrooms, a gymnasium, and a big bay window.
- It is a joint project between five participating space agencies -NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).