Here are some facts about it:
1. It took an astounding 136 space flights on seven different types of launch vehicles to build it.
2. It flies at 4.791 miles per second (7.71 km/s). That's fast enough to go to the Moon and back in about a day. That means the station circles the entire planet once every 90 minutes. Also it is 22 times faster than the speed of sound.
3. It weighs almost 1 million pounds including visiting spacecraft.
4. It has 8 miles of wire just to connect the electrical power system.
6. It has more livable space than a 6-bedroom house and has a pressurized volume of 32,333 cubic feet, the same as a Boeing 747.
7. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a 360-degree bay window.
8. It's been the spaceport for 89 Russian Soyuz spacecraft, 37 Space Shuttle missions, three SpaceX Dragons, four Japanese HTV cargo spacecraft, and four European ATV cargo spacecraft.
9. All its research experiments and spacecraft systems are housed in a bit more than one hundred telephone-booth sized racks.
10. The US solar array surface area on the ISS is 38,400 sq. feet (.88 acre), which is large enough to cover 8 basketball courts.
11. According to NASA, "there are 52 computers controlling the ISS." Just for the US segment, there are "1.5 million lines of flight software code run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals."
12. The ISS is the single most expensive object ever built. The cost of the ISS has been estimated at over $120 billion.
13. The ISS crews have eaten about 25,000 meals since 2000. That's a staggering "seven tons of supplies per three astronauts for six months." That's 32,558 Big Macs.
14. 211 people from 15 countries have visited the ISS so far.
15. When it reaches the end of its life, some of the most modern Russian modules—like Nauka—will be reused to make a third space station to support interplanetary mission to Mars, the Moon and Saturn, serving as a launching and return point.
16. the ISS is the third brightest object in the night sky after the moon and Venus. Eagle-eyed stargazers can even spot it if they look closely enough—it looks like a fast-moving airplane. If you can’t find it, NASA has a service called Spot the Station that texts you when and where it will pass over your location. If you want the opposite view (though we’re pretty sure you won’t be able to spot yourself), there is a live video feed pointing towards Earth that runs when the crew is off-duty.
17. According to NASA, "the ISS has more than 100,000 people working for space agencies and more than 500 contractor facilities in 37 US states and 16 countries." 68 countries have been involved on the research onboard the station.
But beyond all these awesome factoids, the ISS is truly a great research platform, one that contributes to the greater good of the entire planet, both in terms of science and just awe and inspiration.
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