 | This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(June 2020) |
The European contribution to the International Space Station comes from 10 members of the European Space Agency (ESA) and amounts to an 8% share in the programme. It consists of a number of modules (primarily the Columbus laboratory) in the US Orbital Segment, ATV supply ships, launchers, software and €8 billion.
In the 1980s, ESA devised plans for its own space station called Columbus Man-Tended Free Flyer which could be attached to NASA's Space Station Freedom. America objected to ESA's using Columbus as a building block of a future European space station, and were concerned that they would facilitate the creation of a potential competitor if the crewed space outpost fulfilled its promise as supplier of commercially viable products, such as new materials and pharmaceuticals. Plans were scaled down as a result, and by 1988, Europe proposed to participate with three elements: Attached Pressurized Module, Man Tended Free-Flying platform, plus an uncrewed polar remote sensing platform. This would be supported by the Ariane 5 rocket and the Hermes spacecraft. However, after German reunification, ESA's budget reductions meant something had to be cancelled. [1] [2] [3]
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster meant a radical change in plans for a space station. The US and Russia decided to cooperate on an International Space Station. ESA cancelled much of its space station programme to focus on the Columbus module, reconfigured for the ISS. [3] The module was approved in 1995 but delays in station construction meant Columbus would not fly until 2008. [4]
ESA's largest physical contribution has been the Columbus laboratory, launched in 2008. It is a flexible and extensive scientific research facility planned to last at least 10 years. [5] Columbus was constructed in Italy by Thales Alenia Space, an Italian and French group, with functional architecture and software designed by Airbus in Germany. Unlike other ESA built modules, Columbus is operated by ESA rather than NASA and is controlled by the Columbus Control Centre in Germany. It cost €1.4 billion (about US$2 billion) on building Columbus, including the experiments that will fly in it and the ground control infrastructure necessary to operate them. [6]
ESA has contributed a further two nodes (Harmony and Tranquility) which connect modules of the station and had docking ports for visiting ships. They were built by ESA in Italy for NASA and launched in 2007 and 2010. [7] [8] The Italian Space Agency, in addition and independently from its participation to ESA programs, [9] also built the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module for NASA. [10] Likewise, ESA built the Cupola module for NASA which is used for observing Canadarm and was launched in 2009. [11]
In 2021 the European Robotic Arm was launched and attached to the Russian module Nauka. The ERM allows servicing to the Russian segment, where the Canadarm-2 and the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System (JEMRMS) cannot reach. [12]
ESA also provides the DMS-R data management system designed for the Russian segment of the ISS. It provides control, navigation, mission management and failure management for the Russian segment and is installed on the Zvezda module. [13]
ESA developed the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) as an expendable, uncrewed resupply spacecraft to resupply the ISS. It's capable of bringing 6.6 tonnes of supplies to the ISS and docking automatically. As a pressurised component it stays docked as part of the station for several months and boosts it orbit. It is then filled with waste and burnt up in the atmosphere. [14] Five ATVs, Jules Verne , Johannes Kepler , Edoardo Amaldi , Albert Einstein , and Georges Lemaître have visited the International Space Station. No additional ATVs will be funded. [15]
ATV missions were monitored and controlled from the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC) located at the Toulouse Space Centre (CST) in Toulouse, France. The centre was responsible for all planning and executing of every orbital manoeuvre and mission task of the ATV, from the moment of separation from its launch vehicle, until it would burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. [16]
The prime contractor for the ATV was EADS Astrium Space Transportation, leading a consortium of many sub-contractors. Development was started in Les Mureaux, France and moved to Bremen, Germany, as the project moved from its development to production stage of the four initial units starts. In order to facilitate the relationship between the contractor and ESA, an integrated ESA team at the Les Mureaux site had been established for the duration of the development. The development cost of the ATV was approximately €1.35 billion, [17] and each ATV spacecraft costs about US$300 million, not including launch costs. [18]
The ATV also participated in an early round of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services; Boeing submitted a proposal in conjunction with Arianespace to launch the ESA ATV module on a Delta IV rocket. [19] Whereas the ESA launched the ATV on an Ariane 5, the two companies worked together to make this proposal. [19] The ATV could carry up to 7.6 metric tons with a suitable launcher. [19]
ESA's Ariane 5 act as one of the launchers for the ISS components. Guiana Space Centre provides a launch pad for Ariane and Russian Soyuz rockets. All ATV crafts were launched from Ariane rockets at Guiana.
For human spaceflight, ESA crew members would be transported on either the Space Shuttle or various versions of the Soyuz launch vehicle. The Soyuz spacecraft is designated as an ISS lifeboat, so crews needed to train on if they stayed for along periods. This is why there is two of these three spacecraft docked to enable an ISS crew of six, or three when there is one docked. The Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, which created a human spaceflight gap for the U.S. until the launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 on 30 May 2020.[ relevant? ]
ELIPS is ESA's space research programme on the ISS. Columbus provides ESA's research labs through its 10 payload racks stocked with equipment and external facilities for experiments. ESA run experiments on the ISS include an ultra-stable atomic clock, an Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor, an Eye tracking experiment and the Matroshka experiments.
NASA's ISS-RapidScat was attached to and powered via the Columbus module. Its rotating microwave antenna can be seen in select ISS videos in the period from late 2014 to mid 2016 when that instrument was used.
The first ESA astronaut to board the ISS was Umberto Guidoni on a resupply mission. The first ESA astronaut to stay on board in an expedition was Thomas Reiter in 2006. In 2009 Frank De Winne became the first European to serve as expedition commander of ISS. [20]
In contributing to the ISS, ESA only represents 10 of its member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Austria, Finland, and Ireland chose not to participate, because of lack of interest or concerns about the expense of the project. The United Kingdom withdrew from the preliminary agreement because of concerns about the expense of the project. The other states joined ESA after the agreement had been signed. [21] Non-participating ESA states were allowed access to the ISS for a 3-year trial period between 2010 and 2013. [22] [23]
The current cost estimates for the ISS are approaching €135 billion in total (development, construction and 10 years of maintaining the station) of which ESA has committed to paying €8 billion. [24] About 90% of the costs of ESA's ISS share will be contributed by Germany (41%), France (28%) and Italy (20%).
One problem with critiques of costs is double billing, for example, one ESA partner in ISS the U.S.A. is reported to have spend about 30 billion on Space Shuttle flights to ISS, and another 46.7 billion through 2014 for construction costs. [25] However, the shuttle costs are often critiqued in regards to that program. Similarly in Europe, the budget of space programs is discussed, and science programs, and of course the costs of ISS, yet in some cases this clearly a single cost, one science program done on the ISS by an ESA astronaut
 | This section may contain material not related to the topic of the article and should be moved to Christmas on the International Space Station instead.(June 2020) |
On Expedition 50, during the Christmas holiday in December 2016, the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet shared special French food with the station crew for their dinner. [26] Pesquet also made a Christmas-time special video for the ESA. [26]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,200 people globally as of 2018, ESA was founded in 1975. By 2023, it will have an annual budget of about €7.08 billion.
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station in low Earth orbit. The project involves five space agencies: the United States' NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, Japan's JAXA, Europe's ESA, and Canada's CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields. The ISS is suited for testing the spacecraft systems and equipment required for possible future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.
Columbus is a science laboratory that is part of the International Space Station (ISS) and is the largest single contribution to the ISS made by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit five times, exclusively by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle. It effectively was a larger European counterpart to the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft for carrying upmass to a single destination—the International Space Station (ISS)—but with three times the capacity.
Hermes was a proposed spaceplane designed by the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was superficially similar to the American Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar and the larger Space Shuttle.
Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS) are made primarily to deliver cargo, however several Russian modules have also docked to the outpost following uncrewed launches. Resupply missions typically use the Russian Progress spacecraft, European Automated Transfer Vehicles, Japanese Kounotori vehicles, and the American Dragon and Cygnus spacecraft. The primary docking system for Progress spacecraft is the automated Kurs system, with the manual TORU system as a backup. ATVs also use Kurs, however they are not equipped with TORU. The other spacecraft — the Japanese HTV, the SpaceX Dragon and the Northrop Grumman Cygnus — rendezvous with the station before being grappled using Canadarm2 and berthed at the nadir port of the Harmony or Unity module for one to two months. Progress, Cygnus and ATV can remain docked for up to six months. Under CRS phase 2, Cargo Dragon docks autonomously at IDA-2 or 3 as the case may be. As of December 2022, Progress spacecraft have flown most of the uncrewed missions to the ISS.
Harmony, also known as Node 2, is the "utility hub" of the International Space Station. It connects the laboratory modules of the United States, Europe and Japan, as well as providing electrical power and electronic data. Sleeping cabins for four of the crew are housed here.
Tranquility, also known as Node 3, is a module of the International Space Station (ISS). It contains environmental control systems, life support systems, a toilet, exercise equipment, and an observation cupola.
Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS), or Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS), was a proposed design for a crewed spacecraft for low Earth orbit operations such as servicing the International Space Station, but also capable of exploration of the Moon and beyond. It was originally a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos, but later became solely an ESA project. This study was conceived as a basic strategic plan to keep a viable European human spaceflight program alive.
Major Paolo Angelo Nespoli is an Italian astronaut and engineer of the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2007, he first traveled into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a mission specialist of STS-120. In December 2010 he again traveled into space aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft as an Expedition 26/27 flight engineer. Nespoli's third spaceflight was on board Soyuz MS-05, which launched in July 2017 for Expedition 52/53. He was also the European Space Agency's oldest active astronaut prior to his retirement in 2019.
The process of assembling the International Space Station (ISS) has been under way since the 1990s. Zarya, the first ISS module, was launched by a Proton rocket on 20 November 1998. The STS-88 Space Shuttle mission followed two weeks after Zarya was launched, bringing Unity, the first of three node modules, and connecting it to Zarya. This bare 2-module core of the ISS remained uncrewed for the next one and a half years, until in July 2000 the Russian module Zvezda was launched by a Proton rocket, allowing a maximum crew of three astronauts or cosmonauts to be on the ISS permanently.
The Jules Verne ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 001 (ATV-001), was a robotic cargo spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ATV was named after the 19th-century French science-fiction author Jules Verne. It was launched on 9 March 2008 on a mission to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo. Jules Verne was the first of five ATVs to be launched.
The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the fifteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and utilisation, and responsibilities for crew rotation and resupply of the International Space Station. It was conceived in September 1993 by the United States and Russia after 1980s plans for separate American (Freedom) and Soviet (Mir-2) space stations failed due to budgetary reasons. These agreements tie together the five space agencies and their respective International Space Station programmes and govern how they interact with each other on a daily basis to maintain station operations, from traffic control of spacecraft to and from the station, to utilisation of space and crew time. In March 2010, the International Space Station Program Managers from each of the five partner agencies were presented with Aviation Week's Laureate Award in the Space category, and the ISS programme was awarded the 2009 Collier Trophy.
The Johannes Kepler ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 002 (ATV-002), was an uncrewed cargo spacecraft built to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was launched on February 16, 2011 by the European Space Agency (ESA). Johannes Kepler carried propellant, air and dry cargo weighing over 7,000 kilograms (15,000 lb), and had a total mass of over 20,000 kilograms (44,000 lb), making it, at the time, the heaviest payload launched by the ESA. The spacecraft was named after the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.
The Edoardo Amaldi ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 (ATV-003), was a European uncrewed cargo spacecraft, named after the 20th-century Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi. The spacecraft was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 23 March 2012, on a mission to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, oxygen, and dry cargo.
The Albert Einstein ATV, or Automated Transfer Vehicle 004 (ATV-004), was a European uncrewed cargo resupply spacecraft, named after the German-born physicist Albert Einstein. It was built to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, and dry cargo, and also to reboost the station's altitude with its thrusters. It was the fourth and penultimate ATV to be built, following the Edoardo Amaldi, which was launched in March 2012. Albert Einstein's components were constructed in Turin, Italy, and Bremen, Germany, and underwent final assembly and testing in Bremen in 2012. The spacecraft left Bremen for Kourou on 31 August 2012 to begin launch preparations.
The Columbus Man-Tended Free Flyer (MTFF) was a European Space Agency (ESA) program to develop a space station that could be used for a variety of microgravity experiments while serving ESA's needs for an autonomous crewed space platform. It consisted of a Columbus module docked to a service module containing solar power collectors, communications and other services. The program ran from 1986 to 1991, was expected to cost $3.56 billion including launch and utilization, and was cancelled while still in the planning stage. Aspects of the program were later realised in the Columbus science laboratory attached to the International Space Station (ISS).
The European Service Module (ESM) is the service module component of the Orion spacecraft, serving as its primary power and propulsion component until it is discarded at the end of each mission. In January 2013, NASA announced that the European Space Agency (ESA) will contribute the service module for Artemis 1, based on the ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). It was delivered by Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen, in northern Germany to NASA at the end of 2018. After approval of the first module, the ESA will provide the ESMs from Artemis 2 to Artemis 6.
Origins of the International Space Station covers the origins of ISS. The International Space Station programme represents a combination of three national space station projects: the Russian/Soviet Mir-2, NASA's Space Station Freedom including the Japanese Kibō laboratory, and the European Columbus space stations. Canadian robotics supplement these projects.
The MPLMs are provided to the ISS program by Italy (independent of Italy's role as a member state of ESA) to NASA and are considered to be U.S. elements. In a bartered exchange for providing these modules, the U.S. has given Italy research time aboard the ISS out of the U.S. allotment in addition to that which Italy receives as a member of ESA.
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