13 Awesome Facts about the International Space Station (ISS)
- The International space station (ISS) is a working laboratory placed 240 miles above the Earth, housing an international crew.
- The construction of ISS began in November, 1998 when the Zarya Control Module, the first piece of its structure, was launched into the space through a Russian Proton rocket.
- The ISS is even more spacious than a conventional five-bedroom house.
- The ISS completes 15 orbits in a single day.
- The astronauts stationed at ISS have taken more than 200,000 photographs of the earth.
- The mass of ISS is around 419 tonnes.
- The ISS takes about 90 minutes to complete one orbit.
- There are over 50 advanced computers working on the ISS.
- An astronaut mission to the ISS lasts for half a year.
- There are always six astronauts stationed on the ISS.
- The cost of the ISS is more than 100 billion dollars.
- Several countries and space agencies like USA, Russia, ESA (European Space Agency), Japan, Canada, Brazil and Italy are engaged in the construction of the ISS.
- The construction of ISS is expected to be completed by the end of this decade.