Page 46 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

The station was therefore redesigned to orbit at an altitude of 400 km with an inclination of 51.6° to the plAne of its orbit. This orbit allows the station to be reached by the launch vehicles of all the international partners and so maximize the ability of several countries to deliver crews and supplies. As it happens, this orbit also provides excellent Earth observations, with coverage of 85% of the globe and overflight of 95% of the population.
Learning from Mir
For many years the Russian and American space agencies had had different priorities.
The American program had concentrated on reusable launch vehicle space taxis. The Russian program had concentrated on space endurance, largely through Mir and its predecessors. As
a result, there was no doubt that the Russians had by far the greatest experience of living in space. At the same time, America had by far the most sophisticated space taxi in the Space Shuttle.
It made sense to capitalize on this knowledge. By combining the experience from their priorities, they could make a giant leap forward. The first phase of the International Space Station, the Shuttle-Mir program, which began in 1995, therefore involved more than 2 years with American astronauts aboard the Russian Mir space station.
Seven NASA astronauts spent a total of 32 months aboard Mir with 28 months of continuous occupancy. Here they learned about long-period survival in space. This endurance was unmatched by anything NASA had achieved. The Space Shuttle fleet only achieved a year in space after 12 years and 60 flights.
Similarly, Russian cosmonauts accompanied NASA astronauts in Space Shuttle flights to learn about the logistics of reusable vehicles. America and Russia practiced with nine Shuttle-Mir docking missions. For less than 2% of the total cost of the International Space Station program NASA gained knowledge and experience through Shuttle-Mir quickly and efficiently.
That included valuable experience in international crew training activities, the operation of an international space program, and the challenges of long-duration spaceflight for astronauts and ground controllers.
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