International Space Station

“ We've created more than 6 million jobs in the last 18 months, and we're venturing into new, promising areas. We've offered our summit partners the opportunity to participate with us in the development of our manned space station. An international space station will stimulate technological development, strengthen our economies, and improve the quality of life into the next century. ”

“ Congress encourages NASA to include other Federal agencies in its planning efforts to use the International Space Station National Laboratory for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educational activities. ”

“ How will a manned Space Station contribute to the maintenance of U.S. space leadership and to the other goals contained in our National Space Policy? (NASA) How will a manned Space Station best fulfill national and international requirements versus other means of satisfying them? (NASA/State for national and international civil space requirements; DOD/DCI for national security needs.) What are the national security implications of a manned Space Station? ”

“ Under NASA's direction, the next logical step in America's space program-the space station is being planned, with development scheduled for the latter part of this decade. When it becomes operational in the early to mid-1990s, the space station will be a catalyst for expanding the peaceful uses of space for scientific, industrial, and commercial gain. ”

“ But most importantly, like every step forward, a space station will not be an end in itself but a doorway to even greater progress in the future. In this case, a space station will open up new opportunities for expanding human commerce and learning and provide a base for further exploration of that magnificent and endless frontier of space. ”

“ Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade.
A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, in metals, and in lifesaving medicines which could be manufactured only in space. We want our friends to help us meet these challenges and share in their benefits. NASA will invite other countries to participate so we can strengthen peace, build prosperity, and expand freedom for all who share our goals. ”

“ Each mission should and will lay the groundwork for the next. And the pathway to the stars begins, as it did 20 years ago, with you, the American people. And it continues just up the street there, to the United States Congress, where the future of the space station and our future as a spacefaring nation will be decided. ”

“ The station will serve as a laboratory for materials processing and industrial and scientific research; as a permanent observatory for astronomy and Earth observations; as a storage and supply depot; and as a base from which to service other satellites or satellite clusters that will form the world's first space-based industrial park. Japan, Europe, and Canada have joined with us in partnerships that are designed to serve all our long-term interests.
Space exploration is little more than a quarter century old. ”

“ The Space Station was designed economically by using much off-shelf hardware developed for earlier space projects. It is compatible with the Space Transportation System which will operate in the 80's. It is proposed that mission dependent experimental equipment be carried aboard Spacelab-modules which should be exchanged during periodic revisits by the Space Shuttle
The key functions of the proposed Space Station are discussed such as power supply, thermal control, trajectory corrections, logistics etc. ”

“ Any kind of steady growth across the years leads to centralization, to bigness. And that bigness becomes time-hallowed and magnified out of all proportion to its original significance. The Space Station is no exception. It started with the primitive Earth satellites and branched out into fifty-seven larger stations. Now it's tremendous, a single central station that can impose its influence in ship clearance matters with an almost unanswerable finality. ”

“ Spinning always on its axis, substituting centrifugal force for the gravity tug of Earth, the Station was a complete world, a self-contained macrocosm so immense that the magnetic-shod mechanics who inspected it in relays, the passenger-carrying shuttle rockets from Earth that came and went, and even the thousand-foot ships that berthed for re-fueling and clearance seemed hardly to encroach at all on its vast central bulk. ”

“ The space station is a first and necessary step for sustained manned exploration, one that we're pleased has been endorsed by Senator Glenn, and Neil Armstrong, and so many of the veteran astronauts we honor today. ”

“ Astronomers build a space telescope that can see to the edge of the universe and possibly back to the moment of creation. So, yes, this nation remains fully committed to America's space program. We're going forward with our shuttle flights. We're going forward to build our space station. And we are going forward with research on a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport, accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low Earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within 2 hours. ”

“ Did it ascend to the very top, to Commander Clement himself?
Fortunately, the violence of space is a controlled violence, and determined men can slip through it with tools and building materials. They can base themselves on zero-gravity construction rafts and take refuge in pressurized crevices, go floating along steel girders five hundred feet in length until there has been assembled the greatest of all miracles—a manned Space Station a thousand feet in diameter encircling Earth at a distance of fifteen hundred miles. ”

“ Salyut 1 station with Soyuz about to dock The Almaz military station program was the first approved. When proposed in 1964, it had three parts: the Almaz military surveillance space station, Transport Logistics Spacecraft for delivering soldier-cosmonauts and cargo, and Proton rockets for launching both. All of these spacecraft were built, but none was used as originally planned. ”

“ By the time that this mission will be flown, the experience gained through the assembly of Space Station, and the ongoing orbital operations which it is expected to support, will provide an adequate base of technology for personnel to assemble the probe. During assembly, systems checks will be run as each component is integrated into the spacecraft, to prevent failures which would necessitate disassembly of components assembled in orbit. Following assembly, a comprehensive system check-out will be made prior to ignition of the upper stages. ”

“ The platform, of course, was that artificial satellite of Earth which was four thousand miles out and went around the planet in a little over four hours, traveling from west to east. It had been made because to break the bonds of Earth's gravity was terribly costly in fuel—when a ship had to accelerate slowly to avoid harm to human cargo. The space platform was a filling station in emptiness, at which the moon-rocket would refuel for its next and longer and much less difficult journey of two hundred thirty-odd thousand miles. ”

“ The presidents' meeting had been postponed until after the inspection of the moon laboratories by the South American officials. There was talk of a general mobilization and a tightening of discipline at the military stations along the Mexican border and the gulf coast.
Five hundred miles above the Earth, the polar weather station wheeled silently through space. A sphere two hundred feet in diameter, it was girded by a ring deck that was home to forty men and women. The big observation room was the real reason for the space station's existence. ”

“ To a man in the larger darkness of space, a dead sea bottom on Mars, or a moon-landing ship wrapped in eternal darkness on a lonely peak in the Lunar Apennines may glow with a noonday splendor.
"They said a space station that size could never be built," David Corriston said, leaning abruptly forward in his chair. "They quoted reams of statistics: height above the center of the Earth in kilometers, orbital velocity, relation of mass to maneuverability. The experts had a field day. ”

“ This latest addition to the station's backbone will extend the right side of the truss and includes a new set of solar arrays. When unfolded, the 240-foot arrays provide additional power to the station in preparation for the arrival of new science modules from the European and Japanese space agencies. The crew also will retract a solar array to allow for the rotation of the new arrays to track the sun. ”

“ In the scientific arena, the past decade of experience has taught us that spacecraft are an irreplaceable tool for learning about our near-Earth space environment, the Moon, and the planets, besides being an important aid to our studies of the Sun and stars. In utilizing space to meet needs on Earth, we have seen the tremendous potential of satellites for international communications and world-wide weather forecasting. ”

“ While the successful orbiting of a man about the earth is not an end unto itself, it will provide a necessary stepping stone toward the establishment of a space station and for the eventual manned exploration of the moon and the planets. The ultimate goal of this kind of endeavor would, of course, be an actual landing of man on the moon or a planet, followed by his return to the earth. It is not possible to accomplish such a mission with any vehicles that are presently under development. Some day, it may be possible for men in space to accomplish important scientific or technical tasks. ”

“ Exploration and exploitation of space is costly with our current generation of expendable launch vehicles and spacecraft systems. This is particularly true for the manned flight program. Recovery and launch costs will become on even more significant factor when multiple re-visit and resupply missions to on Earth orbiting space station are contemplated. ”

“ Probably the first opportunities for private investment will come in the commercial use of satellites. Looking even further into the future of space exploration, perhaps there would be economic justification for a privately owned launching service that would put objects into space for the peaceful purposes of friendly governments, international agencies, industry, and the universities. ”

“ Reduce station dependence on Earth for control and supply. Solar and nuclear power modules, modules for atmospheric recycling and renewal, food production and waste recycling capabilities, and the ability to assemble platforms and station sections from supplied parts and then to make those parts from supplied raw materials, all contribute to the growing independence of the space industrial complex. ”

“ Station evolution. The chart above summarizes the development of the Soviet/Russian space stations and derivatives. Light gray arrows trace the evolution of space stations and satellites derived from space station hardware. Dark gray arrows trace the influence of concepts on later flown hardware. ”

“ The Earth satellite vehicle will have to prove itself as a practical base, a sort of aerial aircraft carrier from which rocket ships can operate on the Earth shuttle. Before we are ready for interplanetary travel, we will have to harness some tremendous power not now available -- perhaps cosmic rays. There may have to be other space bases established as refueling stations or navigation check points. Incredible as this sounds, intelligent scientists and engineers expect to do it in a few decades. ”

“ During approach to a space station, cosmonauts piloted the TKS from a control post at the front of the FGB. The control post had a viewport overlooking the probe docking apparatus. FGB and capsule could be controlled independently from the ground. The capsule could detach from the FGB and return to Earth, leaving it in free flight or attached to a station. The FGB could be docked by ground control with a space station. TKS or FGB could remain docked to a station for months, providing it with attitude control, orbital maintenance, additional volume, and power from its solar arrays. ”

“ The space station concept is very old in Russia. Space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovskii wrote about space stations as early as 1903. [1] The first space station event relevant to this discussion occurred in March 1962, when Sergei Korolev’s OKB-1 design bureau (ancestor of RKK Energia–until recently, NPO Energia) produced a report called “Complex for the Assembly of Space Vehicles in Artificial Earth Satellite Orbit (the Soyuz) .” ”

“ We have found increasing interest in the exploitation of our demonstrated space expertise and technology for the direct benefit of mankind in such areas as earth resources, communications, navigation, national security, science and technology, and international participation. We have concluded that the space program for the future must include increased emphasis upon space applications. ”

“ When the space shuttle is launched again, the world will know that, once again, the United States is back in space-ready to accept its boundless challenges and eager to pursue its countless opportunities. ”

“ Our horizons and our competence have expanded to the point that we can consider unmanned missions to any region in our solar system; manned bases in earth orbit, lunar orbit or on the surface of the Moon; manned missions to Mars; space transportation systems that carry their payloads into orbit and then return and land as a conventional jet aircraft; reusable nuclear-powered rockets for space operations; remotely controlled roving science vehicles on the Moon or on Mars; and application of space capability to a variety of services of benefit to man here on earth. ”