International Space Station (ISS) Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary
The International Space Station (ISS) is now celebrating its 20 years anniversary, twice as long as initially planned, with a commitment to extend its lifespan as long as possible while the great powers seek an alternative for the conquest of the Moon and Mars.
“From the technological point of view, the state of the ISS will allow its exploitation until 2028-30,” said Yevgueni Mirkin, a spokesman for the Russian corporation Energia, the manufacturer of the Soyuz ships.
All the partners involved in its construction, notably Russia and the USA, have expressed on this occasion of the ISS 20th anniversary their wish to extend the life of the orbital platform, which has been inhabited for 18 years, by at least another ten years.
“Prolonging the useful life of the ISS is the right decision. We must continue to cooperate internationally while commercializing the conquest of space,” legendary astronaut Robert Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Center, said.
International Space Station (ISS) Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary
“It’s a great model of how we’re going to explore outer space in the future. It’s very expensive but very good. Despite our political differences, we continue to work together on the station, the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, the European Space Agency (ESA), as if we were one,” added Cabana, who was invited in Moscow to a scientific conference dedicated to the ISS 20 years anniversary.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also congratulated the International Space Station, but he has not hesitated to describe the space ingenuity as a “global project” and has called for continuing to use the possibilities offered by the ISS to conquer other planets with human-crewed spacecraft.
The platform had two predecessors in the framework of the space race that marked the Cold War, the American Skylab (1973-74) and the Soviet Mir, which started in 1986.
Recently, NASA’s administrator Jim Bridenstine acknowledged that a bill to extend the life of the ISS from 2024 to 2030 has already been referred to Congress, while ESA openly supports the extension, but will not make a decision until the Ministerial Council meeting next year or early 2020, its director Jan Woerner said today.
Vadim is a passionate writer on various topics but especially on stuff related to health, technology, and science. Therefore, for Great Lakes Ledger, Vadim will cover health and Sci&Tech news.
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