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The most monumental construction job in human history is about to begin.
By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
posted: 07:00 am ET
22 August 2000
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By Todd Halvorson CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The most monumental construction job in human history is about to begin. With an overdue Russian crew module finally linked to the International Space Station (ISS), the United States and 15 other nations are ready to resume their plan to build a small city in space.Over the next six years, some 45 U.S. space shuttle and Russian rocket missions are to be launched to haul almost 900,000 pounds (405,000 kilograms) of prefabricated building material to a construction site in low Earth orbit. Flying some 235 miles (378 kilometers) above Earth, astronauts will carry out 140 dangerous spacewalks to piece together station parts, racking up some 1,700 working hours in space. 
Waiting for lift-off: Space station modules at KSC On the ground, more than 100,000 workers in the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and 11 European nations will be finishing science labs the size of mobile homes, power plants to generate electricity even sewage-treatment systems destined for the station. Simply said, the $60 billion project is considered by many to be the most difficult, dangerous and expensive international engineering endeavor of all time. "Were starting to embark on a set of activities that are probably as complex as anything that weve ever done in the space business including, landing on the moon," said NASA shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore."Were going to see at long last if we can put together a giant Lego system in space," added David Webb, a space policy analyst who served on President Reagans National Commission on Space during the projects infancy. "And were going to go full-speed ahead." First proposed by Reagan in 1984 and then revamped to include Russia after the fall of the former Soviet Union, the station construction project got an initial start when its foundation a Russian space tug and a U.S. docking module -- launched and linked in space in late 1998. The project, however, largely ground to a halt until cash-strapped Russia could launch the Zvezda service module, which had to be added to the station before further construction could resume.~ Running seriously behind schedule due to Russian economic and rocket woes, Zvezda which is the Russian word for "star" finally was launched July 12 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. An upgraded copy of the Mir space stations core lab, it docked at the new international outpost two weeks later.Now, its NASAs turn A half million pounds (225,000 kilograms) of station hardware or 85 percent of the U.S. side of the outpost is undergoing final tests in processing hangars here at Kennedy Space Center. Most of the gear is warehoused in the Space Station Processing Facility, which features an ultra-clean, six-story garage. From a glass-enclosed tourist observation deck, workers wearing powder blue lab coats, cloth caps, surgical masks and rubber gloves can be seen scurrying from part to part on a daily basis. Off in one corner, technicians are busy working on the U.S. lab Destiny, a bus-sized metal cylinder that will serve as the scientific hub of the station. Up against an adjacent wall, engineers are checking out two Italian-built "moving vans" dubbed Leonardo and Raffaello cargo carriers that will haul supplies, equipment and experiments to and from the station. 
Part of the station's Central Truss at Kenedy Space Center In the midst of it all is a giant, Canadian construction crane that will be able to move like an inchworm to each work site outside the station, and wing-like solar arrays that will convert sunrays into electrical power for critical outpost systems. Huge dome-shaped gyroscopes, dish-like communications antennas and heat-rejecting radiator panels also are awaiting liftoff with parts of the 356-foot (108-meter) metallic backbone of the station, which ultimately will cover an area as big as one city block. All this and more will be launched over the next 12 months during the most ambitious series of space missions since the Apollo moon-landing project. Fourteen flights including nine missions aboard U.S. space shuttles are planned during that time. First up: A crew of astronauts and cosmonauts who will outfit Zvezda after the planned September 8 launch of shuttle Atlantis. Theyll set up critical life-support systems, install a toilet, unpack a supply ship and ready the outpost for its first resident crew, now scheduled to arrive at the station in early November.Another shuttle crew will loft the first piece of the stations metal framework in October, and yet another will mount power-producing solar arrays outside the outpost in late November. Scientific research will begin after the arrival in January of the Destiny module, and by the end of 2001 the fledgling station will grow to the size of a three-bedroom house that has 1,800 square feet (167 square meters) of living space and 8-foot (2.4-meter) ceilings. NASA station project manager Jim Van Laak calls it "the most intense period of flight operations human spaceflight has ever undertaken." And while project managers fully expect to encounter difficulties and delays along the way, they also are confident that NASA and its partners are ready for the onslaught."Those of us who are working on the program right now feel as though we are riding on a roller coaster that has crested the top of the first hill and has begun to accelerate down the back side," Van Laak said. "The challenge that we face over the next year in particular and the next several years in general is something that we are in awe of, but we are prepared to execute."
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