The International Space Station (ISS)
In The News:
- Boeing Provides 1,600 Components Successfully Launched on Discovery
- Boeing Supports Contributions by Canada and Japan to the International Space Station
- Boeing Supports Addition of Newest Space Station Portal
- Boeing-built Hardware to Provide Electrical Boost to International Space Station
- All News Releases >>
Overview
The ISS is the largest, most complex international scientific project in history and our largest adventure into space to date. When completed around 2010, the ISS will be comprised of more than 100 major components carried aloft during 88 space flights to assemble the space station.
The ISS mission is:
- to conduct basic and applied research to support human exploration of space, and
- to take advantage of the space environment as a laboratory for research -- scientific, technological, and commercial.
Boeing's Role:
- As the prime contractor, responsible for design, development, construction and integration of the ISS.
- Directs a national industry team comprising most major U.S. aerospace companies, hundreds of small contractors, and Boeing itself.
- Integrates the work of participants from the 15 countries that have joined the U.S. to form the ISS team
- Built all of the major U.S. elements of the ISS.
- Assists NASA in operating the orbital outpost.
- Oversees thousands of subcontractors around the globe.
- Prepares every ISS U.S. component for space flight at the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, FL.
- Earned six consecutive 100 percent award fee score for on-orbit performance from NASA.
At completion:
- The ISS will be about four times as large as the Russian space station Mir, and about five times as large as the U.S. Skylab.
- The ISS solar array surface will be large enough to cover the U.S. Senate Chamber more than three times over.
- The ISS will manage 20 times as many signals as the Space Shuttle.
Boeing continues to play an integral part in the construction of the ISS, the most complex venture ever attempted in space.
For more information, read the International Space Station (ISS) (PDF) overview.
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