We all know that the International Space Station (the ISS) is orbiting our planet.
Some might know that important scientific experiments are routinely carried out on the ISS, but to the average person, that’s about it!
We’re here to shine some light on this technological marvel with some of the best facts, so buckle up and prepare for blast-off – it’s going to be quite the ride!
1.The International Space Station was constructed between 1998 and 2011.
The ISS wasn’t created by just one nation but an extensive collection of different national space agencies.
Some modules were created by the US, and others were created by Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada throughout the 90s and early 2000s.
The actual assembly began in 1998 when the first module, the Russian-made Zarya, was launched on a Russian Proton rocket.
The rest of the modules were all ferried to the ISS by NASA’s Space Shuttles.
2.It wasn’t inhabited until 2000.
The first crew to live aboard the ISS were shipped there on the Russian-built Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft as Expedition 1 in November 2000.
The three-person crew consisted of two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev, and an American astronaut, Bill Shepherd, acting as the mission’s commander.
All three had a large amount of experience in space already, with Krikalev having already spent an entire year in space aboard the Soviet MIR Space Station.
3.The ISS is constantly evolving.
By 2011, the space station had accumulated more than 150 different components and fourteen pressurized modules, with astronauts clocking more than 1,000 hours in space, connecting all the pieces.
Five more modules were added in the following eleven years, with more modules already in the works.
4.Astronauts aboard the ISS have to do intense daily exercises.
Funnily enough, living up in space isn’t good for the human body.
One of the most significant factors is the near-absence of gravity, which can cause an astronaut’s bones to lose density and make their muscles slowly fade away.
This is where exercise comes into play, as this can help prevent these issues.
5.The crew aboard the ISS can see the sunrise and set 16 times in 24 hours.
This happens because the ISS orbits the Earth once every 1.5 hours. As you can imagine, this can absolutely wreak havoc on astronauts’ sleep schedules.
Because there is only microgravity on the ISS, astronauts can’t simply lie down in bed.
Instead, they sleep in sleeping bags attached to the walls of the crew cabins – tiny compartments that are just large enough to fit a person inside.
