1internationalspacestation

= = =//__International Space Station__// = = It is more thatn four times as large as the russain mir space stationThe ISS serves as a long-term research laboratory in space, with experiments including biology, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology being carried out daily in the station's microgravity environment.The station also provides a safe testing location for efficient, reliable spacecraft systems that will be required for long-duration missions to the Moon and MarsOne of the main goals of the ISS is to provide a place to conduct experiments that require one or more of the unusual conditions present on the station. The primary fields of research include biology, physics, astronomy, and meteorology. The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated the US segment of the International Space Station as a national laboratory with a goal to increase the use of the ISS by other Federal entities and the private sector.The International Space Station has now spent five years in space on November 20, 2003. The orbiting laboratory complex has grown from a lone, uninhabited module into a permanently staffed, house-sized research facility. =



**FUN FACTS** > The Space Station consists of 70 separate major components and hundreds of minor ones, all of which will be assembled for the first time in space.
 * The Space Station is the largest manned object ever sent into space, encompassing 43,000 cubic feet of living and working space - the equivalent of two Boeing 747's
 * Assembling the Space Station will require 45 launches - 36 from the United States and nine from Russia - and 1,705 hours of space walks, which is double the number of hours U.S. astronauts have walked in space since the beginning of the space program
 * Humans need a little less sleep in space because our bodies do very little work in a microgravity environment. It takes no effort at all to raise an arm, hold your head up, or move a bulky object.
 * Astronauts aboard the Space Station will spend more time working on experiments than anything else. Many projects require teamwork, so astronauts frequently work in pairs.
 * [[image:CP.gif]]

**BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFO/REFERENCES (MLA FORMAT)** world book inc chigigo 2006 [|NASA]
 * [|nationalgeographic] **
 * When fully constructed, the Space Station will be visible to more than 90 percent of the world's population. ||