INSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FREE

In 2031, it will crash down into the Pacific Ocean. The US Space Agency have announced that the ISS will be used until 2030. Docking ports allow other spacecraft to connect to the ISS to bring other astronauts or supplies. Large robotic arms on the spacecraft help them to move scientific equipment around the outside of the space station. When they are outside the station we call this a spacewalk, through the official name is an extravehicular activity (EVA). This lets them to go outside to add improvements to the ISS and fix any problems. The crew enter and exit the ISS through airlocks.

They also study how materials and technology work in space as well as space medicine! The crew exercise for 2 hours each day to keep their muscles and bones healthy. The crew spend their time doing science experiments as well as studying the Earth and space weather. This makes the ISS a special place to study the effects of weightlessness on people, plants, and animals.

INSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FREE

The crew live in microgravity which means everything floats! This happens because the station is in free fall around the Earth. Huge solar panels on each side of the space station collect light from the Sun.Ī crew of 6 or 7 men and women from various nations around the world live on board the ISS for 6 to 12 months at a time. Energy from the Sun provides electricity to the ISS. Inside the ISS, there are science labs, control stations, and living quarters, connected to each other by 'nodes'. The ISS has two sections: the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment. The first crew arrived at the ISS on 2nd November 2000 but the station was not complete until 2011. Between 19, more pieces were added until the ISS was safe for the crew to live on. NASA launched the first piece of the ISS in 1998 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. Space agencies around the world work together to build and use the ISS. You can find out where and when the ISS will appear in the sky with Spot the Station. It looks like a small, bright dot moving quickly across the sky. This means it completes 1 orbit of the Earth in 90 minutes! You can sometimes see the ISS at night - you don't need a telescope. It orbits the Earth 400 km above our planet's surface, travelling at 27,600 km/hour.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a spacecraft large enough for several astronauts to live on at once.

Inside the international space station