I.S.S. FINAL CONFIGURATION
Notes:
The completed International Space Station looked like this in late 1993. Note the solar thermodynamic power generators at right. They were originally proposed for the Russian Mir-2 station, and NASA & Russia briefly considered developing a joint power generator for ISS. NASA initially assumed the entire complex would be assembled by October 2001 from pieces launched on 14 Shuttle flights and 12 Russian rockets. The total cost of the American ISS segment was estimated to be $19.4 billion in 1994-2002.
The fully assembled International Space Station, circa 1994-95. Note that the Russian/American solar thermodynamic generators have been replaced with standard solar panels. By this time the launch of the first ISS crew had slipped eight months, to August 1998 and the complex would be completed no sooner than June 2002. Two Shuttle flights had been added to the manifest to compensate for Russian performance shortfalls.
The current International Space Station. ISS will be completed by 2006 at the earliest which translates to a cost increase of at least $6 billion over the initial $19.4-billion estimate from 1993. However, the project now seems to have careened past most of its obstacles since the two crucial Russian modules -- Zarya and Zvezda -- were launched successfully. Recent minor modifications include a centrifuge module for biological experiments (provided by the Japanese) plus some changes to the Russian laboratory modules.
