Here are five amazing tidbits of
information about the ISS
1. The International Space Station (ISS) is possibly
the most complex engineering project ever built in history. Sixteen nations
were involved in the construction of the ISS - The United States, Russia,
Canada, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
2. The first mission to the ISS was on 2nd November,
2000 and since then it has been continuously occupied. 70 manned missions on
Space Shuttles and Soyuz spacecraft have flown to the ISS; while over 60
unmanned vehicles have docked with the station.
3. The ISS has 32,333 cubic feet of pressurized
volume and weighs 930,000 pounds. It is travelling around 17,500 miles per hour
and orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. According to NASA, the ISS, on average,
sees 16 sunrises and sunsets per 24 hours.
4. Oxygen in the ISS comes from a process called
‘electrolysis,’ which involves using an electrical current generated from the
station’s solar panels to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gas.
5. The ISS is the single most expensive and largest
manned object ever built. The cost is said to be estimated at over $120
billion! Roughly, half of the total price was contributed by the USA and the
rest by other nations including Europe, Japan and Russia.
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