CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -The first ISS component was launched in 1998, and the first long-term residents arrived on 2 November 2000 after being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 31 October 2000.

Detailed explanation-2: -A partnership between 10 European countries (represented by ESA), the United States (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and Russia (Roscosmos), the ISS is the world’s largest international cooperative programme in science and technology to date.

Detailed explanation-3: -The International Space Station Program brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch, operations, training, engineering, and development facilities; communications networks, and the international scientific research community.

Detailed explanation-4: -The ISS consists of Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States, and eleven Member States of the European Space Agency (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

Detailed explanation-5: -Experiments that would be prohibitively expensive for a single country can be achieved through contributions of resources from two or more countries, such as crew time, up-and down mass, and experiment hardware. Cooperation also avoids duplication of experiments and hardware among agencies.