The International Space Station: Why Aren’t More People Looking At It?
The International Space Station (ISS) is 450 metric tons of super charged, multinational, high-grade technological wizardry.
It has been merrily orbiting the Earth at about 17,000 mph since the year 2000. Incredibly, that’s 12 times the speed of a bullet leaving the end of an assault rifle
The ISS has been constantly manned with a crew of seven people. Since its launch, more than 270 people have been onboard.
It flies, or, technically – falls, 205–255 miles above our heads, and whizzes around this watery rocky more than 15 times a day.
Amazing stats aside, the real wonder of the ISS is that you can regularly see it from earth. It appears as a swollen bright dot in the clear night sky, wending a merry arc across the black.
You can find out when the ISS will next pass your area on NASA’s Website, or, if you fancy it, you can get the NASA app for iPhone or Android for free.
You don’t need a telescope or binoculars, just your naked eyes. The ISS passes over at slightly different angles every fly past, and, at most, it only takes about 3–4 minutes to nip from the West horizon to the East.
Yes, it’s just a tiny, insignificant, glowing orb. But when you consider that it’s a 100-meter long, man-made chunk of metal carrying live humans at 7,706 meters per second, you can’t help but be impressed.
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