The International Space Station (ISS)
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest artificial object/satellite ever sent to space by human beings. It weighs around 444,615 kg and is around 73 m long and 109 m wide. It has an overall volume of 915.6 m³. The ISS has been orbiting Earth for more than 23 years and has been inhabited by astronauts from various countries for more than 21 years.
- ISS is a multi-national orbiting platform in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). It has a modular design, constructed by assembling individual modules in space launched by various space agencies around the world. The major partners in ISS are NASA (USA), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), RosCosmos (Russia), and CSA (Canada). The ISS provides habitable volume for astronauts along with a scientific laboratory in space where astronauts live and carry out various scientific experiments.
- The scientific experiments being carried out in various disciplines have enormously benefitted the lives of many, back here on earth and have contributed to improving the understanding of various scientific phenomena.
International Space Station Facts
- An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the International Space Station. Learn more about visitors to the space station by country.
- The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000.
- An international crew of seven people live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth about every 90 minutes. Sometimes more are aboard the station during a crew handover.
- In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.
- Peggy Whitson set the U.S. record for spending the most total time living and working in space at 665 days on Sept. 2, 2017.
- The living and working space in the station is larger than a six-bedroom house (and has six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window).
- To mitigate the loss of muscle and bone mass in the human body in microgravity, the astronauts work out at least two hours a day.
- Astronauts and cosmonauts regularly conduct spacewalks for space station construction, maintenance and upgrades.
- The solar array wingspan (356 feet, 109 meters) is longer than the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 (262 feet, 80 meters).
International Space Station Facts
- Pressurized Module Length: 218 feet along the major axis (67 meters)
- Truss Length: 310 feet (94 meters)
- Solar Array Length: 239 feet across both longitudinally aligned arrays (73 meters)
- Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)
- Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters) not including visiting vehicles
- Pressurized Volume: 35,491 cubic feet (1,005 cubic meters)
- Power Generation: 8 solar arrays provide 75 to 90 kilowatts of power
- Lines of Computer Code: approximately 1.5 million
