Case 5: International Space Station

Abstract

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest technology project of all time and demonstrates the peaceful international use of space for scientific and industrial research. This huge orbiting laboratory had received contributions from the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan and the member states of the European Space Agency (ESA). The ISS is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project which involves five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada). The contractual agreement for the project in terms of ownership and use of the space station is governed by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory and scientific experiments are conducted in different sectors such as astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics and other fields. The ISS also serves as testing center for spacecraft systems and equipment required for long duration missions to Moon and Mars. The station is categorized into two sections-the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) which is operated by Russia. The other section is the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) which is operated by US and other nations.