The first permanent crew of the International Space Station, "Mission 1," set off yesterday years late - mainly because of a two-year delay on the part of Russia, which failed to raise a budget to complete the temporary living unit of
The station, "Zuzda". NASA said in the past that if Russia had gotten rid of the space station
Tamara Traubman
The first permanent crew of the International Space Station, Mission 1, set off yesterday years late - mainly because of a two-year delay on the part of Russia, which failed to raise a budget to complete the station's temporary living unit, Zvezda. NASA said in the past that if Russia were to get rid of the dying Russian space station Mir, funds would be freed up to complete its obligations to the International Station.
The ability of the Americans, who lead the project, and the Russians, to cooperate, will decide the pace of the construction of the station, as well as the success of the entire project. "Cooperation is largely dependent on our new allies, the financially challenged Russians, whose only persistence is their unwillingness to pay their fair share of the cost of the station," wrote Elastis Oberg, a columnist in the "US Today" newspaper recently.
The Russians previously announced that they would take down Mir. A week ago, a cabinet member in Moscow said that it had been definitively decided to stop work at Mir. But in the meantime, the Russians are checking alternative funding sources, including a contract with the NBC network, which wants to produce the space version of the "Survivor" TV series in Mir, and an American millionaire who wants to pay about 20 million dollars for a few days at the station.
Today, the international station is a structure about 44 meters long, of linked units weighing about 73.5 tons. In the next five years, at least four scientific units will be added to it, its weight will reach about 454 tons. It will cover an area larger than a football field.
The scientific units at the station will provide the possibility to carry out experiments in microgravity conditions, on the structure of proteins, to study different substances. The intensive communication that will have to be between the Earth and the station may lead to the development of new communication technologies.
However, despite NASA's optimistic predictions about the station's future contribution to science, the nature of the station's equipment will force the first crews to spend a significant portion of their time on repair and maintenance work, rather than devoting it to investigating deep questions about the universe.
Tamara Traubman
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 1/11/2000{
The first crew of the space station will take off early in the morning
30/10/2000
By Avi Blizovsky
The Soyuz TM31 spacecraft and the rocket on it are standing by at the base
Baikonur space in Kazakhstan. Three astronauts &#;8211 destroy Yuri
Gidzenko and Sergey Kryklyov, and their American commander Bill Shepherd
In final preparations for the launch on October 31 to the space station
International.
Russian engineers have given the green light to launch the first permanent crew
of the International Space Station, after fixing a few glitches of the moment
The last one we discovered today (30/10/2000).
at the Russian-owned cosmodrome near the city of Baikonur in Kazakhstan,
The two Russian cosmonauts and their commander the American astronaut are training
Towards his departure before dawn tomorrow morning to the front post of humanity
in space. You arrived in the Soyuz and not in the American space shuttle, it leaves
An exception, but it was necessary to raise the Soyuz spacecraft to dock at the space station
both to maintain its balance and to be used as lifeboats &#;8211
In the event of a malfunction where there will not be enough time to launch the shuttle from a sphere
Country.
They are supposed to stay in space for four months and maybe more &#;8211 if there is a round
The shuttle flights will be delayed due to the delay in the arrival of the space shuttle Discovery
to Earth last week they are supposed to be replaced by another team,
That this time there will be two Americans and a Russian commander – who will come on
Aboard the Discovery. Over the next few years, the delegations will replace each other
This, and after that, the teams will stay for longer periods towards what
which the planners of the operation hope to become a permanent human presence in space.
According to the usual tradition of a press conference the day before the launch, he said
Shepard said today that he is eager to get to the space station after five years of training
Towards the mission. He asked for this a line said by the famous spaceman Yuri Gagarin: Poyekhali or in Hebrew come on, let's go. Let's go
Members of Team 1 visited the grave of the first man to fly into space &#;8211 Yuri
Gagarin (1934-1968) in Moscow about two weeks ago.
. "
Shepherd said that he and his team are extremely prepared, and considering all the delays
which arose due to the economic crash of Russia which stopped the work on a station
the space. "To be honest with you, the plan we are about to turn the key
Her (space station) is very ambitious. We have a lot to do this week
The closest ones," said Shapert, a former naval officer. "In my opinion, the biggest challenge
Will take out of the guys as much as they can and control the situation because they are guys
Very aggressive and they are going to work very hard.
NASA said that all of the space station's systems have been working well since then
that the shuttle Discovery assembled the skeleton of the station which now weighs 80 tons
(For comparison, the weight of the Mir spacecraft is 12 tons). The mission engineers
The software of the flight computer on board the space station is currently being tested
which has been running automatically since last week. There are two more computers on the station
more with similar performance that can also be used to activate it if there is one
This is necessary.
.
16 countries are participating in the construction of the station, the cost of which is estimated at 60 and maybe even 100
Billion dollars. The space station is the most ambitious engineering project
it's always been like this. It orbits the Earth at an altitude of 384 kilometers, currently
It has three components and is 43 meters in diameter. She glows, under the conditions
certain, as one of the brightest stars in the sky.
Over 40 missions will be required over 5 years to complete the construction in space.
When it is finished it will cover about four dunams, and it will have an area
Residence and living space for astronauts the volume of a Boeing 747 plane
The spacecraft will allow scientific experiments to be carried out in almost zero gravity, and possibly
Even served as a starting point for manned missions to the Moon or Mars. the station
It was designed to last at least ten years but it could also last 25
years, and be replaced by a larger and newer station.
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