For today’s Sci-Friday, let’s play ‘Wake up, ISS!’ No fiction, all reality, as we welcome a new day aboard the International Space Station in 4K
The ISS was originally intended to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory while providing transportation, maintenance, and a low Earth orbit staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given additional roles of serving commercial, diplomatic, and educational purposes. Sound like fun? Here are some more ISS facts:
| Length | 73.0 m (239.4 ft)[1] |
|---|---|
| Width | 109.0 m (357.5 ft)[1] |
| Pressurised volume | 915.6 m3 (32,333 cu ft)[1] |
| Atmospheric pressure | 101.3 kPa (14.7 psi; 1.0 atm) 79% nitrogen, 21% oxygen |
| Perigee altitude | 418 km (259.7 mi) AMSL[2] |
| Apogee altitude | 422 km (262.2 mi) AMSL[2] |
| Orbital inclination | 51.64°[2] |
| Orbital speed | 7.66 km/s[2][failed verification] (27,600 km/h; 17,100 mph) |
| Orbital period | 92.68 minutes[2][failed verification] |
| Orbits per day | 15.49[2] |
| Orbit epoch | 21 May 2021 05:42:57[2] |
| Days in orbit | 22 years, 10 months, 7 days (27 September 2021) |
| Days occupied | 20 years, 10 months, 25 days (27 September 2021) |
| No. of orbits | 131,440 as of December 2020[3] |
| Orbital decay | 2 km/month |
According to NASA, the ISS is as big inside as a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window. Six people are able to live there. It weighs almost a million pounds. It is big enough to cover a football field including the end zones. It has science labs from the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe. Lots of facts and figures on the ISS over at Wikipedia if you’re so inclined. Main thing is that this space station has been in orbit for over twenty years – the longest continuously-occupied space vehicle in history.
I hope you enjoy this Sci-Friday and dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend!
