Daily Archives: March 30, 2016

The International Space Station is an orbiting laboratory and construction site that synthesizes the scientific expertise of 16 nations to maintain a permanent human outpost in space.

While floating some 240 miles (390 kilometers) above Earth's surface, the space station has hosted a rotating international crew since November 2000.

Astronauts and supplies are ferried by the U.S. space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. Astronauts who reach the facility aboard one of these missions typically live and work in orbit for about six months.

Simply by spending time in orbit, astronauts reveal much more about how humans can live and work in space. Crews have learned the difficulties of diet, in a world in which their sense of taste is decreased, and of getting a good night's sleep while secured to a non-floating object.

But the crew is also occupied with a full suite of scientific experiments, the ongoing improvement and construction of the station, and a rigorous regime of physical training. Astronauts must exercise for two hours each day to counteract the detrimental effects of low gravity on the body's skeleton and circulatory system.

Ongoing Construction

The station has been under construction since November of 1998. In that year the first piece of its structure, the Zarya Control Module, was launched into orbit with a Russian Proton rocket. In 2008, the two-billion-dollar science lab Columbus was added to the station, increasing the structure to eight rooms.

The floating facility's design features a series of cylinder modules attached to a larger truss of a dozen segments. The Zarya Module is mainly used for storage and external fuel tanks, while the Zvezda Service Module houses the crew's living quarters and the station's many life-supporting systems. The space station is powered by solar panels and cooled by loops that radiate heat away from the modules. The station's Destiny laboratory functions as a unique floating facility for tests of materials, technologies, and much more. The Columbus lab was designed to house experiments in life sciences, fluid physics, and other fields.

Docking ports allow the station to be visited by a growing variety of spacecraft, and the Quest Airlock enables access for the frequent spacewalks essential to the facility's continuing construction.

Canadarm2 is another important feature of the space station. This Canadian-built apparatus is a large, remote-controlled space arm that functions as a crane and can be utilized for a wide variety of tasks.

The International Space Station may be completed by the end of this decade. When construction is finished, six crew members will be able to live and work in a space larger than a typical five-bedroom house.

Go here to read the rest:
International Space Station - National Geographic

Space Station 13 is a community developed, multiplayer round-based role playing game, where players assume the role of a crewmember on a space station. Together they must keep the station running smoothly, whilst dealing with antagonistic forces who threaten to sabotage the mission.

At the beginning of each round, players select a crew member role on the station. These range from high up positions like the captain and heads of staff, to engineers, scientists, medical doctors, security officers, all the way down to the lower responsibility roles such as the janitor and lowly assistant. At round start, one or more players will be given an antagonistic role at random, and a secret objective thats very likely to cause disruption to the mission at hand.

When the crew arent turning on each other through sheer paranoia, they will face various dangers depending on the round: Sleeper agents hell bent on sabotage, shape-shifting aliens, RPG toting syndicate operatives and more. Not to mention the occupational hazards of working in space, such as decompression, meteor showers, radiation storms, airlock mishaps, rogue AI and catastrophic engine failure.

Continued here:
Space Station 13 | The official website for Space Station 13

STS-88 (Endeavour)/International Space Station (ISS) U.S. Robert Cabana; Frederick Sturckow; Jerry Ross; Nancy Currie; James Newman; Sergey Krikalyov December 415, 1998 linked first two modules of ISS (Zarya [Russia] and Unity [U.S.]) STS-96 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Kent Rominger; Rick Husband; Tamara Jernigan; Ellen Ochoa; Daniel Barry; Julie Payette; Valery Tokarev May 27June 6, 1999 carried supplies to ISS STS-101 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. James Halsell; Scott Horowitz; Mary Weber; Jeffrey Williams; James Voss; Susan Helms; Yuri Usachyov May 1929, 2000 ISS outfitting and repair STS-106 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Terrence Wilcutt; Scott Altman; Edward Lu; Richard Mastracchio; Daniel Burbank; Yury Malenchenko; Boris Morukov September 820, 2000 completed docking of Russian-built Zvezda module to ISS STS-92 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Brian Duffy; Pamela Melroy; Leroy Chiao; William McArthur; Peter Wisoff; Michael Lopez-Alegria; Wakata Koichi October 1124, 2000 delivered Z1 truss to ISS Soyuz TM-31/ISS Russia Yuri Gidzenko; William Shepherd; Sergey Krikalyov October 31, 2000 March 21, 2001 first ISS crew (Expedition 1) STS-97 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Brent Jett; Michael Bloomfield; Joseph Tanner; Marc Garneau; Carlos Noriega November 30 December 11, 2000 mounted solar arrays on Z1 truss STS-98 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Cockrell; Mark Polansky; Robert Curbeam; Marsha Ivins; Thomas Jones February 720, 2001 addition of U.S.-built Destiny laboratory module to ISS STS-102 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. James Wetherbee; James Kelly; Andrew Thomas; James Voss; Susan Helms; Yuri Usachyov March 821, 2001 (August 22 [Voss, Helms, Usachyov]) delivery of Expedition 2 crew (Usachyov, Voss, Helms) and ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS STS-100 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Kent Rominger; Jeffrey Ashby; Chris Hadfield; John Phillips; Scott Parazynski; Umberto Guidoni; Yuri Lonchakov April 19May 1, 2001 added Canadian robotic arm Canadarm2 to ISS Soyuz TM-32/ISS Russia Talgat Musabayev; Yury Baturin; Dennis Tito April 28May 6, 2001 first space tourist (Tito) STS-104 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Charles Hobaugh; Michael Gernhardt; Janet Kavandi; James Reilly July 1224, 2001 addition of U.S.-built Quest air lock to ISS STS-105 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Scott Horowitz; Frederick Sturckow; Patrick Forrester; Thomas Barry; Frank Culbertson; Mikhail Tyurin; Vladimir Dezhurov August 1022, 2001 (December 17 [Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov]) delivery of Expedition 3 crew (Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov) and ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS Soyuz TM-33/ISS Russia Viktor Afanasiyev; Claudie Haigner; Konstantin Kozeyev October 2131, 2001 exchange of Soyuz return craft for ISS crew STS-108 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Dominic Gorie; Mark Kelly; Linda Godwin; Daniel Tani; Yury Onufriyenko; Daniel Bursch; Carl Walz December 517, 2001 (June 15, 2002 [Onufriyenko, Bursch, Walz]) delivery of Expedition 4 crew (Onufriyenko, Bursch, Walz) and ESA-built logistics module Raffaello to ISS STS-110 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Michael Bloomfield; Stephen Frick; Rex Walheim; Ellen Ochoa; Lee Morin; Jerry Ross; Steven Smith April 819, 2002 delivered S0 truss to ISS Soyuz TM-34/ISS Russia Yury Gidzenko; Roberto Vittori; Mark Shuttleworth April 25May 5, 2002 first South African in space (Shuttleworth) STS-111 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Cockrell; Paul Lockhart; Philippe Perrin; Franklin Chang-Diaz; Peggy Whitson; Valery Korzun; Sergey Treschyov June 519, 2002 (December 7 [Whitson, Korzun, Treschyov]) delivered Expedition 5 crew (Whitson, Korzun, Treschyov) and equipment to ISS STS-112 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Jeffrey Ashby; Pamela Melroy; David Wolf; Sandra Magnus; Piers Sellers; Fyodor Yurchikhin October 718, 2002 delivered S1 truss to ISS Soyuz TMA-1/ISS Russia Sergei Zalyotin; Frank De Winne; Yury Lonchakov October 30 November 10, 2002 exchange of Soyuz return craft for ISS crew STS-113 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. James Wetherbee; Paul Lockhart; Michael Lopez-Alegria; John Herrington; Kenneth Bowersox; Nikolay Budarin; Donald Pettit November 23 December 7, 2002 (May 4, 2003 [Bowersox, Budarin, Pettit]) delivered Expedition 6 crew (Bowersox, Budarin, Pettit) and P1 truss to ISS Soyuz TMA-2/ISS Russia Yury Malchenko; Edward Lu April 26October 28, 2003 Expedition 7 crew to ISS Soyuz TMA-3/ISS Russia Aleksandr Kaleri; Pedro Duque; Michael Foale October 18, 2003 April 30, 2004 (October 28 [Duque]) Expedition 8 crew (Kaleri, Foale) to ISS Soyuz TMA-4/ISS Russia Gennadi Padalka; Andr Kuipers; Michael Fincke April 19October 24, 2004 (April 30 [Kuipers]) Expedition 9 crew (Padalka, Fincke) to ISS Soyuz TMA-5/ISS Russia Salizhan Sharipov; Leroy Chiao; Yury Shargin October 14, 2004 April 24, 2005 (October 24 [Shargin]) Expedition 10 crew (Sharipov, Chiao) to ISS Soyuz TMA-6/ISS Russia Sergey Krikalyov; Roberto Vittori; John Phillips April 15October 11, 2005 (October 24 [Vittori]) Expedition 11 crew (Krikalyov, Phillips) to ISS STS-114 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Eileen Collins; James Kelly; Soichi Noguchi; Stephen Robinson; Andrew Thomas; Wendy Lawrence; Charles Camarda July 26August 9, 2005 first space shuttle flight after Columbia disaster Soyuz TMA-7/ISS Russia Valery Tokarev; William McArthur; Gregory Olsen October 1, 2005 April 8, 2006 (October 11 [Olsen]) Expedition 12 crew (McArthur, Tokarev) to ISS Soyuz TMA-8/ISS Russia Pavel Vinogradov; Jeffrey Williams; Marcos Pontes March 30 September 29, 2006 (April 8 [Pontes]) Expedition 13 crew (Vinogradov, Williams) to ISS; first Brazilian astronaut (Pontes) STS-121 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Mark Kelly; Michael Fossum; Lisa Nowak; Piers Sellers; Stephanie Wilson; Thomas Reiter July 417, 2006 (December 22 [Reiter]) increased ISS crew from two to three (Reiter) STS-115 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Brent Jett; Christopher Ferguson; Joseph Tanner; Daniel Burbank; Heidimarie Stefanyshyn-Piper; Steven MacLean September 921, 2006 attached solar array to ISS Soyuz TMA-9/ISS Russia Mikhail Tyurin; Michael Lopez-Alegria; Anousheh Ansari September 18, 2006 April 21, 2007 (September 29 [Ansari]) Expedition 14 crew (Lopez-Alegria, Tyurin) to ISS STS-116 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Mark Polansky; William Oefelein; Nicholas Patrick; Robert Curbeam; Christer Fuglesang; Joan Higginbotham; Sunita Williams December 922, 2006 (June 22, 2007 [Williams]) connected new solar array to ISS electric system; first Swedish astronaut (Fuglesang); longest spaceflight by a woman (Williams; 194 days, 18 hours) Soyuz TMA-10/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Fyodor Yurchikhin; Charles Simonyi April 7October 21, 2007 (April 21 [Simonyi]) Expedition 15 crew (Kotov, Yurchikhin) to ISS STS-117 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Frederick Sturckow; Lee Archambault; Patrick Forrester; Steven Swanson; John Olivas; James Reilly; Clayton Anderson June 822, 2007 (November 7 [Anderson]) delivered S3/S4 truss to ISS STS-118 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Scott Kelly; Charles Hobaugh; Tracy Caldwell; Richard Mastracchio; Dafydd Williams; Barbara Morgan; Benjamin Drew August 821, 2007 delivered S5 truss Soyuz TMA-11/ISS Russia Yury Malenchenko; Peggy Whitson; Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor October 10, 2007 April 19, 2008 (October 21 [Sheikh]) Expedition 16 crew (Whitson, Malenchenko) to ISS; first Malaysian astronaut (Sheikh) STS-120 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Pamela Melroy; George Zamka; Scott Parazynski; Stephanie Wilson; Douglas Wheelock; Paolo Nespoli; Daniel Tani October 23 November 7, 2007 (February 20, 2008 [Tani]) added Harmony node to ISS STS-122 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Stephen Frick; Alan Poindexter; Stanley Love; Leland Melvin; Rex Walheim; Hans Schlegel; Leopold Eyharts February 720, 2008 (March 26 [Eyharts]) added ESA Columbus laboratory module to ISS STS-123 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Dominic Gorie; Gregory Johnson; Robert Behnkne; Michael Foreman; Doi Takao; Richard Linnehan; Garrett Reisman March 1126, 2008 (June 14 [Reisman]) added Canadian robot Dextre to ISS Soyuz TMA-12/ISS Russia Sergey Volkov; Oleg Kononenko; Yi So-Yeon April 8October 24, 2008 (April 19 [Yi]) Expedition 17 crew (Volkov, Kononenko) to ISS; first second-generation cosmonaut (Volkov); first Korean astronaut (Yi) STS-124 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Mark Kelly; Kenneth Ham; Karen Nyberg; Ronald Garan; Michael Fossum; Hoshide Akihiko; Gregory Chamitoff May 31June 14, 2008 (November 30 [Chamitoff]) added Japanese Kibo laboratory module to ISS Soyuz TMA-13/ISS Russia Yuri Lonchakov; Michael Fincke; Richard Garriott October 12, 2008 April 8, 2009 (October 24, 2008 [Garriott]) Expedition 18 crew (Fincke, Lonchakov) to ISS; first second-generation American astronaut (Garriott) STS-126 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Christopher Ferguson; Eric Boe; Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper; Donald Pettit; Stephen Bowen; Robert Kimbrough; Sandra Magnus November 1430, 2008 (March 28, 2009 [Magnus]) delivered equipment that would allow a six-person crew on the ISS STS-119 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Lee Archambault; Dominic Antonelli; John Phillips; Steven Swanson; Joseph Acaba; Richard Arnold; Wakata Koichi March 1528, 2009 (July 31 [Wakata]) added final solar array to ISS Soyuz TMA-14/ISS Russia Gennadi Padalka; Michael Barratt; Charles Simonyi March 26October 11, 2009 (April 8 [Simonyi]) Expeditions 19 and 20 crew (Padalka, Barratt); first repeat space tourist (Simonyi) Soyuz TMA-15/ISS Russia Roman Romanenko; Frank De Winne; Robert Thirsk May 27December 1, 2009 Expeditions 20 and 21 crew; brought ISS to full crew of six STS-127 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Mark Polansky; Douglas Hurley; David Wolf; Julie Payette; Christopher Cassidy; Thomas Marshburn; Timothy Kopra July 1531, 2009 (September 11 [Kopra]) added facility exposed to space to the Japanese Kibo laboratory module STS-128 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Frederick Sturckow; Kevin Ford; Patrick Forrester; John Olivas; Jose Hernandez; Christer Fuglesang; Nicole Stott August 29 September 11, 2009 (November 27 [Stott]) delivery of ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS Soyuz TMA-16/ISS Russia Maksim Suryaev; Jeffrey Williams; Guy Lalibert September 29, 2009 March 18, 2010 (October 11, 2009 [Lalibert]) Expeditions 21 and 22 crew (Suryaev, Williams) STS-129 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Charles Hobaugh; Barry Wilmore; Michael Foreman; Robert Satcher; Randolph Bresnik; Leland Melvin November 1627, 2009 delivery of spare parts to ISS Soyuz TMA-17/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Noguchi Soichi; Timothy Creamer December 21, 2009 June 2, 2010 Expeditions 22 and 23 crew STS-130 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. George Zamka; Terry Virts; Kathryn Hire; Stephen Robinson; Robert Behnken; Nicholas Patrick February 821, 2010 installed Tranquility node on ISS Soyuz TMA-18/ISS Russia Aleksandr Skvortsov; Mikhail Korniyenko; Tracy Caldwell-Dyson April 4September 25, 2010 Expeditions 23 and 24 crew STS-131 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Alan Poindexter; James Dutton, Jr.; Dorothy Metcalf- Lindenburger; Stephanie Wilson; Richard Mastracchio; Yamazaki Naoko; Clayton Anderson April 520, 2010 delivery of ESA-built logistics module Leonardo to ISS STS-132 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Kenneth Ham; Dominic Antonelli; Michael Good; Piers Sellers; Stephen Bowen; Garrett Reisman May 1426, 2010 delivery of Russian-built Mini Research Module to ISS Soyuz TMA-19/ISS Russia Fyodor Yurchikhin; Shannon Walker; Douglas Wheelock June 16November 26, 2010 Expeditions 24 and 25 crew Soyuz TMA-01M/ISS Russia Aleksandr Kaleri; Oleg Skripochka; Scott Kelly October 8, 2010 March 16, 2011 Expeditions 25 and 26 crew Soyuz TMA-20/ISS Russia Dmitry Kondratyev; Paolo Nespoli; Catherine Coleman December 15, 2010 May 24, 2011 Expeditions 26 and 27 crew STS-133 (Discovery)/ISS U.S. Steven Lindsey; Eric Boe; Benjamin Drew; Michael Barratt; Stephen Bowen; Nicole Stott February 24March 9, 2011 delivery of robot Robonaut 2 and ESA-built Permanent Multipurpose Module to ISS; last flight of Discovery; first astronaut on consecutive shuttle flights (Bowen) Soyuz TMA-21/ISS Russia Aleksandr Samokutyayev; Andrei Borisenko; Ronald Garan April 5September 16, 2011 Expeditions 27 and 28 crew STS-134 (Endeavour)/ISS U.S. Mark Kelly; Gregory Johnson; Michael Fincke; Gregory Chamitoff; Andrew Feustel; Roberto Vittori May 16June 1, 2011 delivery of Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to ISS; last flight of Endeavour Soyuz TMA-02M/ISS Russia Sergey Volkov; Furukawa Satoshi; Michael Fossum June 7November 22, 2011 Expeditions 28 and 29 crew STS-135 (Atlantis)/ISS U.S. Christopher Ferguson; Douglas Hurley; Sandra Magnus; Rex Walheim July 821, 2011 delivery of ESA-built Permanent Multipurpose Module to ISS; last flight of Atlantis; last space shuttle flight Soyuz TMA-22/ISS Russia Anton Shkaplerov; Anatoly Ivanishin; Daniel Burbank November 11, 2011 April 27, 2012 Expeditions 29 and 30 crew Soyuz TMA-03M/ISS Russia Oleg Kononenko; Andr Kuipers; Donald Pettit December 21, 2011 July 1, 2012 Expeditions 30 and 31 crew Soyuz TMA-04M/ISS Russia Gennady Padalka; Sergey Revin; Joseph Acaba May 15September 17, 2012 Expeditions 31 and 32 crew Soyuz TMA-05M/ISS Russia Yury Malenchenko; Sunita Williams; Hoshide Akihiko July 15November 19, 2012 Expeditions 32 and 33 crew Soyuz TMA-06M/ISS Russia Oleg Novitsky; Yevgeny Tarelkin; Kevin Ford October 23, 2012 March 16, 2013 Expeditions 33 and 34 crew Soyuz TMA-07M/ISS Russia Roman Romanenko; Chris Hadfield; Thomas Marshburn December 19, 2012 May 14, 2013 Expeditions 34 and 35 crew Soyuz TMA-08M/ISS Russia Pavel Vinogradov; Aleksandr Misurkin; Christopher Cassidy March 28September 11, 2013 Expeditions 35 and 36 crew Soyuz TMA-09M/ISS Russia Fyodor Yurchikhin; Luca Parmitano; Karen Nyberg May 28November 11, 2013 Expeditions 36 and 37 crew Soyuz TMA-10M/ISS Russia Oleg Kotov; Sergey Ryazansky; Michael Hopkins September 25, 2013 March 11, 2014 Expeditions 37 and 38 crew Soyuz TMA-11M/ISS Russia Mikhail Tyurin; Richard Mastracchio; Wakata Koichi November 7, 2013 May 14, 2014 Expeditions 38 and 39 crew Soyuz TMA-12M/ISS Russia Aleksandr Skvortsov; Oleg Artemyev; Steven Swanson March 25, 2014 Expeditions 39 and 40 crew Soyuz TMA-13M/ISS Russia Maksim Surayev; Gregory Wiseman; Alexander Gerst May 28, 2014 Expeditions 40 and 41 crew

Excerpt from:
International Space Station (ISS) - Britannica.com