International Day of Human Space Flight 2024 is on Friday, April 12, 2024: About Our Base in Space, International Space Station (ISS)?

Friday, April 12, 2024 is International Day of Human Space Flight 2024. International Day of Human Space Flight 2012 International Day of Human

Our Base in Space

International Space Station (ISS)

Thousands of people from 16 nations are working together to build the biggest structure to ever float above our planet: the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is a giant Lego project in the sky. More than 100 major pieces are being assembled 230 miles above Earth, where gravity is much lower than it is on the surface.

In November 1998, the Russian Proton rocket made the first flight to the ISS, delivering the first module, Zarya Control Module. The U.S.’s Space Shuttle Endeavour followed in December 1998, and astronauts attached the Unity Node to Zarya. The first crew, consisting of one American and two Russians, arrived at ISS in October 2000. From that point on, ISS has been permanently staffed.

Because of the low gravity in space, the 70 major sections of the ISS are being put together in space instead of on Earth. NASA expects the final pieces to be assembled by April 2006. When finished, the ISS will be as large as two football fields and will include six separate science labs. Astronauts, who will work on the ISS for up to six months at a time, will conduct experiments on board. They plan to study the long-term effects of weightlessness on humans, invent substances that work best in very low gravity and more. One day, the ISS may be a launching place for exploratory missions to other planets, like Mars.

Participating countries are: the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Brazil.

is tomorrow, 4/12 an international space discovery day? For the first time not only Russian day?

As declared by the United Nations General Assembly on 7 April 2011, yes.

"General Assembly Declares 12 April International Day of Human Space Flight;

First Annual Celebration Marks Fiftieth Anniversary of Russian Space Shot"

It must be noted, though, that Space Day has been celebrated in various ways and in numerous countries for many years.

Do you think that we should spend more or less on space research?

The Human mind is naturally inquisitive, it makes sense for us to want to learn more about the Universe.

If we scrap all these, sometimes admittedly botched, attempts to explore and learn beyond our own world, how would we ever develop further?

Our success is built on learning about our environment and understanding things we previously didn't; who knows what we might learn in these next few years of scientific research.

These are the early days of space research. It's like the first ever heavier than air flight: The "Kitty Hawk" managed a flight time of merely 12 seconds on December 17, 1903.

A hundred years later and we've already put someone on the moon.

To "cut back" on scientific research at this stage of our civilisation would be, I think, disastrous and would stem the potential for us to address issues such as poverty and climate change in the future.

If you want to save money, don't cut back scientific research, cut back on Footballers salaries