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So today marks 20 years of continuous occupation of space. Sergei Krikalev, Bill Shepherd and Yuri Gidzenko.
They weren’t the first people to visit the ISS... well actually Sergei was, but that was in 1998 on STS-88 when he and Bob Cabana boarded the station together.
They weren’t the first people to visit the ISS... well actually Sergei was, but that was in 1998 on STS-88 when he and Bob Cabana boarded the station together.
There had been 5 shuttle missions to the ISS, prior to this: 34 astronauts and cosmonauts, 27 From the US 5 from Russia and 1 each from Canada and Japan.
The station consisted of Zarya, Unity, Zvesda and the Z1 Truss segment. It was probably about 75-80 tons, not including the Soyuz.
It was livable, but underpowered, and the Unity module wasn’t used due to lack of power.
The first progress resumption ship arrived a few weeks in, it was an M1 variant that included more fuel at the expense of cargo.
But it included a care package of movies on Video CD. The first movie they watched was The Sixth Sense.
But it included a care package of movies on Video CD. The first movie they watched was The Sixth Sense.
A shuttle delivered the p6 truss segment in November, this has the solar panels needed to fix the power problems, but to dock the shuttle with enough clearance they needed to undock the progress and put it in a parking orbit nearby.
When the shuttle arrived they didn’t immediately open the hatch, there were 3 important EVA’s planned which required the shuttle to be able to control its atmosphere independently from the station. It would be 6 days before the crews actually met.
Another shuttle would deliver the Destiny module, which required shuffling the docking adapters around. And then a third shuttle brought cargo, and the expedition two crew.
In the early ISS days crew rotations were carried out by shuttle, with the Soyuz being an emergency return vehicle. Every six months they’d swap them out. And on these swap out flights we’d sometimes see tourists.
By the time Expedition One left the mass of the station had exceeded 100 tons and had more internal volume than either Skylab or Mir.
