Initial construction was due to begin in 1997 but it was not until November 1998 that a Russian rocket put the first module into space. One of the most recent developments was on June the 3rd 1999 when the Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the station and left two tons of supplies and equipment. At present it looks likely to be finished by 2004. It will be 14 tennis courts large, manned by six astronauts and will cost about 36 billion dollars.

Shortly after the Second World War the USA and the USSR, two of the so-called ‘superpowers’, entered an economic and diplomatic war called the Cold War. There were two main causes of the Cold War. Disagreements im

Between 1945 and 1961 many international events were taking place, some of which helped to increase the tension between the Russians and Americans. These events included the Korean War in 1950, Cuba becoming communist, and the Russian invasion of Hungary.

In this period of time I think there were three main factors resulting in space technology development and ultimately the ISS. Most of these factors will be different to the previous factors because in this period of time relations between Russia and America were good.

Work on Space Station Freedom was proving expensive and slow. In 1988 measures were taken to counter this. Canada, the European Space Agency and Japan all agreed to help America with the project.

In my opinion it was the Cold War that started the ball rolling. I think that if it were not for the Cold War neither of the nations would have been motivated to develop their space technology at the rate they did and there would be no ISS today. The Cold War created a great rivalry between Russia and America, which resulted in them pushing each other to discover and develop more and more. Each country wanted to develop space technology not only to better each other and impress their nation, but also to create satellites for spying and rockets for nuclear missiles. Basically, the Cold War gave both countries a reason to develop their space technology. If the Cold War had never happened space technology would still have developed, but nowhere near as fast.

Some topics in this essay:
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