It is all about international cooperation. We have seen it at work in many ventures, the most recent being global mobile personal communications by satellite (GMPCS). The skies are now filled with satellites of different shapes and sizes. But that is just the beginning. As more and more satellites continue to orbit planet Earth and "live" in outer space, so too will humankind.
In January 1998, an intergovernmental agreement was signed in the United States by several countries to design, build and operate what will be the first permanently manned international outpost in space: the International Space Station. The countries joining hands in this new venture in outer space are the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and ten of the fourteen member States of the European Space Agency (ESA): Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
When completed in 2004, the station (see cover page) will be the largest ever structure in space, spanning over 100 m and sprawling across an area the size of a football field.
This article looks at some of the milestones reached by humankind in space, as 1998 drew to a close.
The first module of the future International Space Station was successfully launched on 20 November 1998 by a Russian Proton rocket which took off from the Baikonur launching site in Kazakstan. Forty seconds later, the launcher disappeared behind the clouds which covered the region. The 12-metre Zarya module reached its orbit ten minutes after blast-off. Zarya, which means "dawn" in Russian, will serve as a propulsion engine, power station and communications centre.
In the words of ESA Director-General Antonio Rodota, who watched the launch from about five kilometres away: "This is the largest technological project to be undertaken jointly by the nations of the world in the history of mankind. For Europe, it is the start of an exciting new era in space exploration."
On 4 December 1998, two weeks after Zarya was launched, the American Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (United States), to place Unity, the second module of the station, in orbit. With its six docking ports, Unity will serve to attach the future American modules.
On its third day in orbit, Endeavour caught up with Zarya, which the astronauts captured and joined to Unity using the Shuttle's robotic arm. In the next few days, two crew members performed three spacewalks to finish assembling the two modules. The Shuttle then separated from the "embryo" station and headed back to Earth.
Endeavour's crew of six included Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. On the day before the final spacewalk, he and another astronaut entered the "Unity-Zarya" unit through the Shuttle's docking mechanism for the first time, to transfer spare equipment and complete assembly work.
The exact launch time was determined during the last sixty minutes of the countdown, when American and Russian controllers had identified Zarya's exact orbital position.
Unity's launch was broadcast by satellite by ESA from the Astronaut Training Centre in Cologne (Germany), with commentary from its correspondent and a group of guests reporting live from the Kennedy Space Center.
These two elements assembled in space form the core of the new space complex. More than 100 elements will be added to the case over the next five years, requiring a total of 45 assembly flights using the American Space Shuttle and two types of Russian launcher.
A cut-open view of the "Columbus" orbital facility, Europe's laboratory on the International Space Station, which will be launched in late 2002. In this pressurized laboratory, astronauts will work in a comfortable shirt-sleeve environment
(Photo: ESA/D. Ducros, ITU 990001)
Europe will be involved in 19 of these flights. It will supply scientific and technical equipment to the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Space Agency (RKA). Among other things, ESA will contribute two key elements: the multi-purpose Columbus laboratory and an automatic transfer vehicle (ATV) to be launched by Ariane5 to transport supplies to the station. Columbus will join the station in 2004.
"The STS-95 mission and ESA's direct participation in the International Space Station programme show that Europe is determined to bring the benefits of space exploration to humankind. And I would like to be part of this adventure", declared Pedro Duque after the Shuttle Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on 7 November 1998.
Duque had just taken part in the STS-95 mission, the last of a series of manned flights from which Europe amassed valuable experience for operating the station.
During the mission (from 29 October to 7 November 1998), Duque monitored the ESA equipment designed for scientific experiments proposed by Belgian, British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Swiss researchers.
As a mission specialist, he was responsible for deploying communications antennas and opening the payload bay doors to radiate surplus heat from the Shuttle into space. One experiment on the mission involved testing wireless communications between computers, using radio Internet links.
Duque also played a major role in medical experiments which took place during the mission.
The STS-95 mission was the last test for some ESA scientific equipment and for experiments on the effect of
weightlessness on various materials and substances which could be taken on board the Columbus orbital element of the
station.
The STS-95 crew
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As well as Duque, the international crew of the STS-95 mission included the oldest astronaut of them all, Senator John Glenn making his return to space at the age of 77, no less than thirty-six years after he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
In 1962, John Glenn strapped himself into a 2-metre diameter capsule atop an experimental rocket, the Atlas Mercury spacecraft.
After three orbits, reaching a maximum altitude of about 260 km and speed of 28000 km/h, Glenn's Friendship-7 Mercury spacecraft splashed down some 1200 km south-east of the Kennedy Space Center. The pioneering astronaut of what turned out to be a dramatic flight had spent 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds in space.
The STS-95 crew take a break from their training regimen prior to their mission, Shuttle Discovery. Seated are Curtis L. Brown Jr. (right), mission commander; and Steven W. Lindsey, pilot. Standing, from the left, are Scott F. Parazynski and Stephen K. Robinson, both mission specialists; Chiaki Mukai, payload specialist; Pedro Duque, mission specialist; and Senator John H. Glenn Jr., payload specialist
(Photo: NASA/ESA, ITU 990002)
But Senator Glenn was not the only member of the crew to go into the record books, since Duque is now there as the first Spanish astronaut. Born in March 1963, a year after Glenn's epic flight, Duque was also the youngest member of the crew. "It is a unique honour to be flying with someone at the vanguard of space exploration", said Duque.
Construction of the station will continue in 1999, with a long series of Ariane4 and Ariane5 launches and the completion of several satellites for launch in 2000 and beyond. On the European side, the ministers of ESA member States responsible for space activities in their countries will be meeting in May in Brussels for the Council session during which they will take the necessary decisions to secure Europe's position in space.
When it is operational, this huge space structure the size of a football pitch will serve as a home for astronauts
and cosmonauts for at least fifteen years: not to play football, of course, but to carry out scientific research,
monitor experiments and share in general on-board tasks. — ESA.
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