{"id":6206,"date":"2026-01-05T05:20:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/?p=6206"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:28:52","slug":"international-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/international-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"International Space Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0International Space Station<\/strong>\u00a0is a large spacecraft in orbit around Earth. It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live. The space station is also a unique science laboratory. It is a unique international collaboration among five space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The International Space Station is made up of many different modules, each of which has a specific purpose.<\/p>\r\n

The first module of the ISS\u00a0Zarya control module<\/strong>\u00a0was launched in 1998, and the station was fully assembled in 2011. The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by astronauts ever since and is expected to remain in orbit until 2030.<\/p>\r\n

About the International Space Station<\/h2>\r\n

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest man-made object in space launched on November 20,\u00a01998<\/strong>. It serves as a habitat for astronauts in space. Since 2011, the ISS has been continuously inhabited.<\/p>\r\n

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  • Participating States:<\/strong>\u00a0ISS is a collaborative project of the United States (NASA<\/strong>), Russia's (Roscosmos<\/strong>), Europe's (ESA<\/strong>), Japan's (JAXA<\/strong>), and Canada's (CSA<\/strong>) space agencies.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Orbit:<\/strong>\u00a0The International Space Station is in orbit about\u00a0400\u00a0<\/strong>kilometres above Earth.<\/li>\r\n\t
  • Speed:<\/strong>\u00a0It travels around Earth at a speed of about\u00a028,000<\/strong>\u00a0kilometres per hour. This means that it orbits Earth about every\u00a090 minutes.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n\t
  • Objectives:\u00a0<\/strong>To expand our knowledge about space and microgravity and promote new scientific research. It also serves as an example of international cooperation.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

    \"About<\/p>\r\n

    Significance of the International Space Station<\/h2>\r\n

    The International Space Station stood as one of the world's most successful examples of international diplomacy, peace, and collaboration.<\/p>\r\n

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    • It serves as a\u00a0testbed for long-duration spaceflight<\/strong>\u00a0and helps in studying the effects of extended space missions on the human body, which is invaluable for crewed missions to Mars and the Moon.<\/li>\r\n\t
    • Space Medicine Research:\u00a0<\/strong>The space environment provided insights into treatment for age-related impairments like\u00a0Alzheimer\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0cance<\/strong>r<\/strong>\u00a0in the immune system due to the mimicking of microgravity conditions present in cells.<\/li>\r\n\t
    • Human Spaceflight Expertise:<\/strong>\u00a0The International Space Station has served as a training ground for astronauts preparing for future space missions to Mars and the Moon.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

      International Space Station - Important Discoveries<\/h3>\r\n

      Apart from Drug development, the development of new water purification systems and strategies to reduce muscle and bone atrophy are some of the key discoveries of the International Space Station. Other discoveries are as follows:<\/p>\r\n

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      • Fundamental disease research<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Discovery of steadily burning cool flames<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Methods to combat muscle atrophy and bone loss<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Exploring the fifth state of matter<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Understanding how our bodies change in microgravity<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Testing tissue chips in space<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Stimulating the low-Earth orbit economy<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Growing food in microgravity<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Deployment of CubeSats from the station<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Monitoring our planet from a unique perspective<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Collecting data on more than 100 billion cosmic particles<\/li>\r\n\t
      • A better understanding of pulsars and black holes<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Capability to identify unknown microbes in space<\/li>\r\n\t
      • Opening up the field of colloid research<\/li>\r\n\t
      • The evolution of fluid physics research<\/li>\r\n\t
      • 3D printing in microgravity<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

        Current Status of the International Space Station<\/h2>\r\n

        Plans for the future operation of the International Space Station were thrown into\u00a0uncertainty post-Ukraine War 2022<\/strong>\u00a0as the European Space Agency withdrew future collaborations with Russia.<\/p>\r\n

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        • Russia\u00a0<\/strong>announced\u00a0leaving the ISS<\/strong>\u00a0to build its space station.<\/li>\r\n\t
        • The\u00a0US and Europe\u00a0<\/strong>have announced that they will remain committed to the International Space Station till 2030.<\/li>\r\n\t
        • ESA\u00a0<\/strong>is working towards a new space station, which it is calling\u00a0Starlab.<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n

          Other Space Station Initiatives<\/h2>\r\n

          Japan, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and others are also planning to establish their space stations.<\/p>\r\n

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          • Tiangong<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0China's\u00a0<\/strong>self-built space station and has been fully operational since late 2022, accommodating a maximum of three astronauts at an orbital altitude of up to 450 km (280 miles).<\/li>\r\n\t
          • India\u00a0<\/strong>aims to build an indigenous space station named\u00a0Bhartiya Antriksh Station<\/strong>\u00a0by\u00a02035<\/strong>.\r\n\r\n
              \r\n\t
            • It will be fixed in a\u00a0400-kilometre orbit<\/strong>\u00a0above the Earth, weighing up to\u00a020 tonnes,<\/strong>\u00a0where astronauts might stay for\u00a0up to 15-20 days<\/strong>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest man-made object in space. It serves as a habitat for astronauts in space as well as a research laboratory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[717,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-6206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-quest-level-4","8":"tag-international-space-station","9":"tag-quest"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19854,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6206\/revisions\/19854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}