The first crew on the International Space Station appeared 20 years ago. NASA notes that since then
The first ISS crew consisted of American BillShepard and the Russians Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko - they went into space on October 31, 2000 and arrived on the ISS two days later. The Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft with the crew of the first long-term expedition docked to the Zvezda service module. The approach of the spacecraft to the station was carried out according to the scheme that was used during flights to the Mir station. 90 minutes after docking, the hatch was opened and the ISS-1 crew stepped on board for the first time.
The first thing the first crew did upon arriving atspace station on November 2, 2000, the lights were turned on. Krikalev called it "very memorable." They then heated the water and activated the toilet. Shepard, a former Navy SEAL who served as the station's commander, compared the first months of work to living on a ship in the ocean. Most of the time the three astronauts spent time working with equipment, and the conditions in which they did this were more primitive than now.
Since then, the space station has becomescientific complex, its area is equal to the length of a football field. It consists of 13 kilometers of electrical conduits, 4,000 square meters of solar panels and three high-tech laboratories.
“Imagine 500 tons of things thatare in the same space, and most of them were not used in this way, never touched or attached that way, Shepard noted in an interview with The Associated Press. - And now all this has been working for 20 years, and without big problems. This is a real testament to what can be done in such programs, even when it seems impossible. "
Astronauts are now in constant communication withLand, flight controllers, and even phones for personal use. The first crew, on the other hand, used intermittent radio communications with the Earth, and shutdowns could last for hours.
The main problem of the station now isthe growing threat from space debris. The orbiting laboratory had to dodge debris three times this year. The last time the ISS dodged space debris was on September 23, 2020. Shortly before this, a source at the Mission Control Center in Moscow reported that a dangerous approach of the ISS with an unrecognized space object was predicted.
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