International Space Station (ISS)

International Space Station (ISS)

Part of: Prelims and GS-III Science and technology

Context: Recently Russia has threatened the world by saying that Russia could respond to the US sanctions by letting the ISS fall from space. 

• Russian space agency chief said that the ISS could drop over US or Europe, or over India and China. 
• Its orbital flight path usually does not take it over most of the Russian territory.

About International Space Station

• The International Space Station is the only operational space laboratory as of now, orbiting the earth in a trajectory that is about 400 km above the land surface.
• It is operated by more than 15 partner countries. 
• Some of the partners of the ISS are: Russia, United States, Canada, Japan and several members of the European Space Agency.
• The football-field-sized ISS travels at a speed of about 28,000 km per hour. 
  • It completes one journey around the earth in about one and a half hours. In one day, therefore, it makes about 16 trips around the world.
• The ISS is not the first space station to be built and operated. 
  • Several smaller space stations have been used earlier, the most famous of which have been the Russian Mir space station that operated in the 1980s, and the American Skylab.
• The ISS has been in operation since 1998 and is expected to continue at least till 2028. 
  • Russia, however, has indicated that it might pull out of the collaboration earlier, possibly by 2024.

News Source: IE