back to article In Space, Still: 20 years since Russia hurled first bit of floating astronaut hostel into orbit

The International Space Station turned 20 this week as space agencies and 'nauts alike celebrated the anniversary of the launch of the first module of the ISS. The Functional Cargo Block (FGB) was launched on 20 November, 1998, signifying the start of ISS assembly. Also known as "Zarya" ("Dawn" in Russian) in reference to …

  1. Aladdin Sane
    Pint

    This--->

  2. jake Silver badge

    Lame duck.

    "The current US administration has expressed a desire to end funding by 2025"

    I rather suspect the current administration will no longer be an issue come 2020.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Lame duck.

      I rather suspect the current administration will no longer be an issue come 2020.

      I fear you're wrong

      1. ArrZarr Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Lame duck.

        I fear he's wrong as well, but I also suspect that 2025 is outside of the current administration's scope even if 2020 doesn't see a new resident of the White House.

        1. wolfetone Silver badge

          Shades of Mir?

          Shades of Space Station Freedom. And that didn't work out well for the original version of Trump's Presidency either.

    2. Spazturtle Silver badge

      Re: Lame duck.

      The ISS is getting old, the temperature change from being in full sunlight to being in full shade takes its toll on the metal. The Trump administration* actually decided to push the date back one year in order to guarantee 100% that it would not occur during Trump's presidency.

      *I doubt Trump actual makes decisions on things like this, some civil servant probably gave him a few option and he picked one at random Simpsons movie style

    3. Michael Habel

      Re: Lame duck.

      Whatever helps you sleep at night Pal! But, perhaps the third time will be her charm? I kinda doubt it though.

  3. Julz

    Polyus/Skif/TKS

    Zarya looks a lot like a re-functioned service module from this beast that they had lying around after the program was canceled.

    http://www.astronautix.com/p/polyus.html

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: Polyus/Skif/TKS

      Well the initial stages of the ISS that came from Russia were originally intended to form the basis of Mir 2. So it's not a surprise to think it looked like that.

  4. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Happy

    If only we'd build Project Orion, we could get a decent space station into orbit in one piece.

    I propose that we launch from Skegness. Nobody would miss it. Or Paris...

    1. Julz

      The White House lawn?

      1. Michael Habel
        Go

        The White House lawn?

        Ok but, I propose we wait until after Hillary (Your beloved Queen), actually becomes President! Then its (See Icon), time...

        1. jmch Silver badge
          Facepalm

          "I propose we wait until after Hillary..."

          Wow, you really can't comprehend that anyone could not like Trump and also not like Clinton? Hilary Clinton would most likely not have made a good President. Trump, of course, is quite possibly the worst ever president the US has ever had. But that still doesn't mean I, or many others, like Hilary. In fact I am flabbergasted that a nation of 300 million people arrived at a point where they had to choose between those 2.

    2. Annihilator
      Joke

      "I propose that we launch from Skegness"

      Or, launch Skegness! Think about it, space tourism is the future and Skegness's tourism is in decline, so could be a winner.

      1. The Nazz

        re Skegness

        Wish i'd bookmarked it then i could have provided a link, but somewhere back in the midst of time, i grabbed a photo of the universe (well, a large chunk of it, ok, a small chunk of it) with an arrow and label pointing to Skegness.

        Impressive.

      2. PhilBuk

        >>Or, launch Skegness! Think about it, space tourism is the future and Skegness's tourism is in decline, so could be a winner.

        You will just have to wait for the spindizzy to be invented. I can, however, think of more deserving places to be launched into space e.g. Slough.

        Phil.

        1. jake Silver badge
    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "Or Paris..."

      The French would vote for that!

      (The French don't see Parisians as French and generally don't think too much of them)

  5. Cem Ayin
    Boffin

    "Floating"

    Nitpick: The ISS is not "floating" (i.e. experiencing lift due to buoyancy). Quite the contrary, in fact: it is falling (as evidenced by the microgravity conditions aboard). The reason that it is not colliding with earth is not lift but the fact that it has been carefully accelerated to move "sideways" (to wit: in an orbit) just fast enough to avoid ever hitting Earth while falling towards, or rather: around, it.

    1. Michael Habel

      Re: "Floating"

      You should reconsider the icon, and instead use the Padantic one instead. -Just sayn'.

      1. Santa from Exeter
        Headmaster

        Re: "Floating"

        Pedantic

      2. Allonymous Coward
        Headmaster

        Re: "Floating"

        Sayin'

        1. Qwelak
          Happy

          Re: "Floating"

          To quote Douglas Adams :

          There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

          So technically the ISS is flying not floating or falling

    2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: "Floating"

      The reason that it is not colliding with earth is not lift but the fact that it has been carefully accelerated to move "sideways"

      In other words - falling towards earth but cleverly managing to miss?

      1. Aqua Marina

        Re: "Floating"

        “In other words - falling towards earth but cleverly managing to miss?”

        In other words.... falling with style!

        #toinfinityandbeyond

    3. Red Bren
      Coat

      Re: "Floating"

      Surely it's travelling in a straight line through curved space-time?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Floating"

      Captain Pedantic here. Definitions for the "float" are not restricted to buoyant floating, but include definitions such as "not fixed in one position, place, or level". Since it is not anchored to another body in space, the ISS can indeed be said to be "floating in space".

      I would suggest that in this day and age, few people would actually attribute the ISS' maintenance of its altitude to buoyancy, especially amongst El Reg readers, but if there are any such befuddled souls present, I'm sure they will have benefited greatly from your explanation of free-fall.

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: "Floating"

        This isn't flying, this is falling with style!

    5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: "Floating"

      "The reason that it is not colliding with earth is not lift but the fact that it has been carefully accelerated to move "sideways" (to wit: in an orbit) just fast enough to avoid ever hitting Earth while falling towards, or rather: around, it."

      So, in reality, it's flying. The secret to flying, of course, is the art of falling while managing to miss the ground.

      (With thanks to the late, great Douglas Adams)

      Edit: Buggeration! I should have read on before replying! Beating by at least 4 others.

  6. tony72

    FGB

    In case, like me, you were wondering why the acronym for " Functional Cargo Block" is FGB rather than FCB, wikipedia tells me it stands for the Russian term "Funktsionalno-gruzovoy blok".

    1. The Nazz

      Re: FGB

      Ha ha, did they call it "Funktsionalno-gruzovoy blok" to save on paying the USAians a licence fee for the copyright on the words functional and block?

      Shouldn't need to but here goes >>>> (was gonna insert a suitable icon here but they've gone).

  7. Valerion
    Joke

    $220m for 12m x 4m storage?

    That's getting close to Big Yellow Self Storage rates!

    1. pavel.petrman

      Re: $220m for 12m x 4m storage?

      Re: "Big Yellow Storage" - didn't you mean Bigelow?

  8. ThatOne Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Sic transit gloria mundi

    > expressed a desire to end funding by 2025, effectively killing off the ISS

    Thus effectively killing the last remains of human presence in space... :-(

    A couple decades later the last remains of know-how to send a human in space will have been lost, and space will just be a commercial battlefield for clouds of cheap throw-away satellites offering increasingly pointless services.

    "So what" you might ask, "I don't need no stinking space."

    Well yes you do actually: The race to the moon has triggered technological progress we all profit from daily, in almost all aspects of our lives. When the only progress left is IoT-enabled flower pots we will know human civilization has gone into fatal decline.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sic transit gloria mundi

      "Well yes you do actually: The race to the moon has triggered technological progress we all profit from daily"

      Despite having been an enthusiastic follower of both space programmes in my teens and for a while afterwards, I don't really believe that. Physicists and chemists started to get everything they wanted after WW2 because of the nuclear weapons race. It was that which made the space programmes possible.

      Teflon, often mentioned, was actually discovered before WW2. Aluminium and titanium alloys resulted from aircraft developments from about 1914 on.

      Voyna mat izobreteniya/war is the mother of invention.

      1. phuzz Silver badge

        Re: Sic transit gloria mundi

        "Teflon, often mentioned, was actually discovered before WW2."

        It's first large scale use was in the Manhattan Project, to help stop all that nasty uranium hexafloride from leaking out of the gaseous diffusion plants.

        Communications satellites and satellite positioning systems are both useful benefits of the space program, although not from the manned side.

    2. Brangdon

      Re: last remains of know-how to send a human in space will have been lost

      I take it you are not following NASA's plan to launch humans into space next year? Or SpaceX plan to put humans on Mars within 10 years?

      ISS is ancient and falling apart. I'm all in favour of scrapping it and replacing it with something newer and in a more convenient orbit. By which I don't mean Lunar orbit like the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, but LEO. And cancel SLS and use the money to buy launches off SpaceX.

    3. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Sic transit gloria mundi

      A couple decades later the last remains of know-how to send a human in space will have been lost, and space will just be a commercial battlefield for clouds of cheap throw-away satellites offering increasingly pointless services.

      As usual, a painfully relevant XKCD: xkcd.com/893

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Sic transit gloria mundi

        "As usual, a painfully relevant XKCD: xkcd.com/893"

        $Deity, that is sad!

    4. Sandtitz Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Sic transit gloria mundi @ThatOne

      "Thus effectively killing the last remains of human presence in space"

      Not at all. There are 'remains'. And more are to come.

      Wiki: Ashes of Clyde Tombaugh are travelling within New Horizons towards interstellar space and a small capsule of Eugene Shoemaker's ashes are in the Moon, probably buried.

    5. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Sic transit gloria mundi

      I have a t-shirt that says "We went from landing on the Moon to "This Bag Is Not A Toy" in 40 short years"

  9. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    When stargazing, I am always amazed to see the ISS pass overhead, usually fairly early in the evening, when still illuminated by the sun sitting just below the horizon. With my big 16x80 binoculars, it shows some resolved structure, although it is hard to keep in the field of view as it moves along at quite a clip.

    Whatever its problematic start, and doubtful future, it is an amazing achievement, and shows what we humans can achieve if we stop bickering for any length of time (or at least, bicker more productively). I'll raise a glass to all those who have contributed to this success.

    1. MrReal

      I often see the ISS sweep overhead too.

      However many of the interviews 'from the ISS' are green-screened from earth with VR tech because the interior of the ISS is a bit of a pig-stye.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Headmaster

        "pig-stye."

        Is that a pig with an ocular infection?

    2. davemcwish

      Oh look there's the ISS

      As with Michael H.F. Wilkinson it is an amazing achievement. Sadly I can't see in my light polluted part of East London. I do however go a camping event every year and it's a joy to stand outside and spot the ISS with the naked eye.

  10. Chozo

    Out of this world

    Off-Planet file storage.. where do I sign up?

    1. Admiral Grace Hopper

      Re: Out of this world

      Storage above the cloud!

  11. 's water music

    bunch of save icons

    damn, I'm too old to get that joke until I looked at the picture

  12. Tempest8008

    5 of those with one BFR

    Yeah, refusing to call it Starship. But a single SpaceX BFR would be able to loft the equivalent of 5.2 of those suckers at once.

    We need big lifters and a bloody origami expert to fit it all into a neat unfold-able package.

    Er....we also need the BFR to exist.

    You! Yes, you! Get on that...

    1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge

      Re: 5 of those with one BFR

      The could have rolled out 5 saturn 5 rockets, and used those to launch the entire thing....

      Sadly , the US government prefers to spend 600 billion on blowing shit up and complaining about the cost of NASA at about 22 billion.....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 5 of those with one BFR

        You can't sell NASA to foreign governments, but you can sell arms.

        US weapons exports increased dramatically from 2016 to 2017 (no idea why) reaching over $12 billion. Launching stuff in the US even involves buying foreign rocket motors. Sad.

      2. Aqua Marina

        Re: 5 of those with one BFR

        “The could have rolled out 5 saturn 5 rockets, and used those to launch the entire thing....”

        Better still they could just roll out 5 of the Saturn 5s, send them up, dock them altogether and make a huge giant Skylab!

        *for you young ones, the Saturn 5 was so powerful it was able to reach orbit without needing fully fuelling. So they converted part of the rocket unused fuel tank into a space station, that effectively launched itself into orbit becoming Skylab. Suggest you google the videos of it. It was so big they could fly around the inside with jet packs!

  13. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge
    Happy

    Skyhooks

    Willy Wonka ought've patented 'em.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Skyhooks

      I believe that would be Mr. Abdul-Jabbar's territory

  14. arctic_haze

    We need ISS in orbit just to have an argument against the growing flat earth fallacy which claims there is no space. Now everybody can see it by naked eye and even see its silhouette using a small amateur-class telescope.

    With no ISS, even more people will believe there is no gravity, stars hang on a glass firmament and the Earth pancake is surrounded by an impenetrable ice wall.

    1. Tigra 07
      Joke

      RE: arctic_haze

      "With no ISS, even more people will believe there is no gravity, stars hang on a glass firmament and the Earth pancake is surrounded by an impenetrable ice wall"

      What about those of us who believe the Earth rests on the back of a giant galactic turtle?

      1. Geekpride

        Re: RE: arctic_haze

        You can ask the astronauts to wave to Great A'Tuin as they go by.

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