International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest space project developed jointly by numerous nations: the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European members of ESA, to which other notions have joined as collaborators. .

The ISS stands out because it allows enormous continuity of human activities in space for long periods of time, on the order of several months. Likewise, research that requires microgravity and the space environment obtains greater scientific returns the longer they remain in Earth orbit.

The future of the International Space Station

The ISS is the largest structure ever assembled in space. Its dimensions are larger than a football field and its solar panels are the largest ever built. Without having the exotic "wheel" appearance of space stations that we have seen in science fiction (such as in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey"), the ISS has greatly fulfilled expectations, being the scene of various scientific experiments in zero gravity.

In any case, NASA has already spoken out regarding the future of the ISS, once its successful adventure is over. The space station will operate until 2030. After that, in early 2031, this enormous structure that has been in orbit since 1998, will be guided into a controlled re-entry to Earth, so that it will burn up on entry and fall into the Pacific Ocean.

The idea of this is to progress towards a transition, where new companies focused on astronautics (e.g. SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, etc.), will be developing new commercial stations in conjunction with NASA, in a low orbit, while other companies have their own plans to build space stations.

Lastly, but of special interest to fans, is the possibility of observing the ISS during its movements through the sky. In fact, it is the most luminous celestial object and thanks to its low orbit, high inclination with respect to the equator and its large size, its silhouette can be perfectly distinguished using a suitable telescope or even observed with the naked eye, in addition to being able to predict when this will occur. , thanks to various websites that allow you to track the position of the ISS and many other artificial satellites. An example of this is the site heavens-above.com.