TWO DECADES OF HUMANS IN SPACE

A symbol of exploration, possibilities, research & collaboration, the International Space Station completes twenty years of human habitation beyond planet earth

- AYUSHEE CHAUDHARY

LAST MONTH NOVEMBER 2, 2020 MARKED TWENTY YEARS since the International Space Station received its first residents. Since then the orbiting habitat also referred to as an orbiting laboratory, the International Space Station (ISS) has stayed occupied, making it possible for humans to live in space.

The ISS is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. It is a collective project involving multinational collaboration of space agencies like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The ISS is now composed of 16 modules: four Russian, nine US, two Japanese and one European.

Through these 20 years, the ISS has been orbiting the earth as a symbol of possibility, exploration, potential, science, engineering, and working together. After 20 years of continuous human presence, the ISS has provided 241 visitors with an extraordinary view of Earth from outer space — the glimpse of which they have shared with the entire world.

Astronaut photography, formally called Crew Earth Observations (CEO), has resulted in more than 3.5 million photographs of the ever-changing blue planet through astronauts as well as an impressive suite of Earth Science instruments that have also visited the station to capture vast amounts of data about our planet.

However, NASA points out that space aboard the station itself is limited, and the spots are highly coveted. Instruments go through a rigorous approval process and cycle through every couple of years, turning the station into a virtual swiss-army knife of interchangeable remote sensing tools.