Russia’s Nauka

Russia’s Nauka

Part of: GS Prelims and GS -III – Space

In news Russia is sending the module, Nauka, to the ISS

• Nauka was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 21 using a Proton rocket. 
• It is scheduled to be integrated with the ISS on July 29.

What is Nauka?

• Nauka, meaning “science” in Russian, is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date.
• It will replace Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks.
• Now, Nauka will serve as the Russia’s main research facility on the space station.
• Nauka is 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes.
• It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).

What is the International Space Station?

• A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
• The ISS has been in space since 1998.
• It is a result of cooperation between the five participating space agencies that run it: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
• The ISS circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day.
• The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific experiments are conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields.

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