On Friday, Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi arrived at the International Space Station, accompanied by the crew of the Crew-6 mission, to carry out the longest space mission in the history of the Arabs, which extends for six months.
The International Space Station is a standard station (a habitable satellite) in low Earth orbit, and it is a multinational cooperative project that includes five participating space agencies: the American “NASA”, the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), the Japanese “JAXA” agency, and the International Space Agency. European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Ownership and use of the space station are determined by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
The station serves as a laboratory for space environment and microgravity research, as scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics and other fields.
The International Space Station is the place to test spacecraft systems and equipment for potential future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
The idea of establishing the International Space Station program emerged from two projects: the first for NASA is called (Space Station Freedom), which is an American proposal designed in 1984 with the aim of building a station that moves in orbit around the Earth and is permanently inhabited. As for the second project contemporary to the first, it was the Soviet-Russian “Mir 2” project, which was proposed in 1976 with similar goals.
The International Space Station is the ninth space station inhabited by space crews. It was preceded by several stations made by the “Salyut” and “Almaz” programs, the Soviet “Mir” station (later Russian), and the American “Sky Lab” station.
The International Space Station is the largest man-made station in space, and the largest artificial satellite in low Earth orbit, and can be seen with the naked eye on a regular basis from the Earth’s surface.
It is 109 meters long and regarding 73 meters wide, which is equivalent to the size of a large football field, so it provides astronauts with plenty of comfortable rooms for periods of eating and sleeping.
The International Space Station maintains an average altitude of approximately 400 km, equivalent to (250 miles), through so-called altitude maneuvers, in which the station uses the engines installed on the service module (Zvezda). The International Space Station orbits Earth in regarding 93 minutes, completing 15.5 revolutions per day.
The station is divided into two parts: the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), which is operated by Russia, and the US Orbital Segment (USOS), which is operated by the United States, in addition to many other countries.
And the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) agreed to continue operating the Russian orbital part of the station until 2024, following it had previously proposed using elements from this part to build a new Russian space station called “Opsik”.
The first parts of the International Space Station were launched in 1998, and the first long-term astronaut mission arrived at the station on November 2, 2000. Since then, the International Space Station has been continuously inhabited by humans for a period of 21 years and 86 days, which is the longest continuous period of human existence in history. Low Earth orbit, surpassing the previous record of nine years and 357 days set by the Russian Mir space station.
