International Space Station Provides New Feelings of Détente

The International Space Station (ISS) circles the globe 15.54 times every 24 hours with a crew of six astronauts. It’s a huge satellite that races around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. The international scientists who make up the crew travel in what’s called a low orbit that averages an altitude of 248 miles.

Three American and three Russian astronauts left Earth for the ISS in 2000 to become the first rotating group of scientists to live inside the ISS. The largest structure ever put into space, the ISS covers an area larger than a football field, including the end zones. It’s big enough to be seen at night with the naked eye; it resembles a streaking star as it crosses different parts of the globe. If it were on earth, the massive structure would weigh 400 tons.

The main assembly started in 1998 and went on two years; improvements have continued for the past 19 years. American shuttles and Russian rockets transported pressured modules, external trusses and solar arrays that were assembled in space like a giant erector set. The international mix of scientists who comprise the changing crews of the ISS demonstrate co-operation and trust in working together.

American and Russian governments paid the bulk of the costs to assemble and begin operation of the ISS. The European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency contribute money to help pay the $100 billion plus dollars spent so far to keep the ISS floating above Earth.

While the two superpowers distrust each other on a political platform, goodwill feelings are strong between Russia and the U.S. concerning the ISS. Trust and co-operation between the U.S. and Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) was at a high water mark in the late 1960’s into most of the 1970’s. That time of mutual trust and co-operation became known as Détente (dey-tahnt). That’s French and means a relaxing of tension, especially between nations, by negotiations and agreement.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States co-existed in a tumultuous time called the Cold War. Both countries competed in manufacturing military buildup including nuclear weapons. Tensions came to a head with the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. It was a dangerous time when the U.S. came close to war with the Soviets.

Détente became a popular idea as leaders and citizens of the two countries realized that the stockpiling of weapons that could destroy Earth several times over was useless and extremely expensive. Efforts to put Americans and Soviets into space helped to overshadow the arms race.

The word Détente slowly left the lexicon of the two countries by the time the Berlin Wall was knocked down in November 1989. That’s when the Soviet Union and communism itself started coming apart.

Scientists who make up the crew of the ISS spend about six months in the satellite before a new crew of astronauts replaces them. The ISS provides a microgravity laboratory where crew members conduct experiments in biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. The ISS and future space stations provide excellent opportunities to monitor weather patterns on Earth. Manned exploration to other planets such as Mars would also by greatly helped by such platforms as the ISS.

The ISS is the ninth successful, inhabited space station. Extended funding for the ISS project was approved in March 2017 by both the U.S. and Russia to keep it working through 2024. The replacement for the ISS will be developed and built during the next eight years in Russia by the Roscosmos agency. Roscosmos is the Russian equivalent to America’s NASA.

The commitment to keep funding the ISS for the next seven years gives the two superpowers a chance to keep Détente working in space and maybe, by example, make it spread among all nations.