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Presence in Space

The brightest light in a clear night sky, the
International Space Station (ISS) has been
humanity’s home away from home for the
past 20 years — a home for cooperation
among the United States, Russia, Canada,
Japan, and Europe, and a home for funda-
mental scientific research.
On Nov. 2, 2000, Expedition 1 docked
with the fledgling orbital outpost. Its
crew members, NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and Russian
cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, entered the ISS from
Soyuz TM-31. They stayed aboard the station for 136 days, ushering
in the era of continuous human presence in space.
“It was very memorable, switching on the lights for the first
time,” recalled Krikalev in a commemorative virtual roundtable
with the original members of Expedition 1. “The goal of our mission
was to make the station alive. Some of the hardware had never
met each other on the ground, and we had to install it in space for
the first time. It is the result of this experiment that we have been
using up to now.”
From Expedition 1 to today’s Expedition 64, 241 astronauts,
cosmonauts, and space tourists from 19 countries have called the
ISS their home. Over the same time span, the orbital laboratory has
hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations
from 108 countries.
The Plasma Kristall-3 experiment, later known as PKE-
Nefedov, was the first to be conducted on the space station.
The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany
and the Institute of High Energy Densities in Moscow collaborated EE Times Europe Magazine
on this project to study the formation and behavior of plasma delivers the latest news, articles,
and dust crystals in microgravity. During the past two decades,
the ISS has enabled long-duration microgravity research, includ- special reports, and features to cover
ing tissue- and organ-on-chip development and the creation of a every facet of today’s challenging and
Bose-Einstein condensate that provides insights into fundamental
laws of quantum mechanics. disruptive technologies, software,
“We have proven to the world that when you’re joined in a
common goal, you can accomplish anything,” said Ginger Kerrick, and components.
russian training integration instructor for Expedition 1. “The ISS
should be the model for how the world should be getting along, how
the world should be making bigger and better things together.” Our team of editors brings together
From the comfort of our own home, we look up and see infinity.
A bright star moves across the sky. It is the ISS orbiting Earth at the latest in engineering journalism
17,150 miles per hour. Whether it continues to operate for another and articles to keep you up to speed
20 years or not, the ISS will remain a habitat for humanity.
It’s been an epic journey of universal discovery. ■ with the state of the art in the
electronic engineering industry.

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— Anne-Françoise Pelé
— Anne-Françoise Pelé , editor-in-chief of EE Times Europe www.eetimes.eu
— Anne-Françoise Pelé
, editor-in-chief of EE Times Europe
— Anne-Françoise Pelé, editor-in-chief of EE Times Europe
www.eetimes.eu | DECEMBER 2020