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Table of Contents
The International Space Station (ISS) is a central modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a worldwide cooperation effort including five space agencies: NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
See the fact file below for more information about the International Space Station, or download the comprehensive worksheet pack, which contains over 11 worksheets and can be used in the classroom or homeschooling environment.
Key Facts & Information
OVERVIEW
- Intergovernmental treaties and agreements control the ownership and usage of the space station. The station is a microgravity and space environment research laboratory where scientists study astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other disciplines.
- The ISS is ideal for testing spacecraft systems and equipment for future long-duration trips to the Moon and Mars.
- The ISS program originated from the Space Station Freedom concept in 1984 to build a permanently manned Earth-orbiting station and the current Soviet/Russian Mir-2 project from 1976 with similar goals. The International Space Station (ISS) is the eighth space station to be occupied by humans, after the Soviet and subsequently Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations, as well as the American Skylab.
- It is the enormous artificial object in space and the most extensive satellite in low Earth orbit, and it can be seen with the naked eye from the Earth’s surface regularly. It maintains a trajectory with an average height of 400 kilometers (250 miles) by performing reboots maneuvers with the Zvezda Service Module’s or visiting spacecraft’s engines. The ISS completes 15.5 orbits daily and circles the Earth in around 93 minutes.
HISTORY
- NASA planned to deploy a modular space station dubbed Freedom in the early 1980s to compete with the Soviet Salyut and Mir space stations. The ESA was invited to partake in Space Station Freedom in 1984, and the ESA authorized the Columbus laboratory in 1987. In response to a NASA proposal in 1982, the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), or Kib, was declared in 1985 as part of the Freedom space station.
- In early 1985, science ministers from European Space Agency (ESA) nations authorized the Columbus program, the organization’s most ambitious space project. The German and Italian plans were for a module to be fitted to Freedom and capable of evolving into a full-fledged European orbiting colony by the end of the century.
- The space station would also bring burgeoning European and Japanese national space programs closer to the US-led enterprise, preventing them from becoming solid and independent rivals.
- In September 1993, Vice President Al Gore of the United States and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin revealed plans for a new space station, which would eventually become the International Space Station. In preparation for this new project, they also agreed that the United States would participate in the Mir program, which includes American Shuttles docking, in the Shuttle-Mir program.
- On April 12, 2021, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, then-Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov announced that Russia may withdraw from the ISS program in 2025.
- According to Russian officials, the station’s operational period has expired, and its condition is deplorable. Borisov, who took over as head of Roscosmos, submitted his intentions to withdraw from the program after 2024 to Putin on July 26, 2022.
- However, NASA official in charge of space station operations, Robyn Gatens, said that NASA had not received any formal notice from Roscosmos regarding pullout intentions.
PURPOSE
- The ISS was designed to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory, as well as transportation, maintenance, and staging facility for future trips to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.
- However, not all of the applications envisaged in the first collaboration agreement signed by NASA and Roscosmos have been achieved. The ISS was assigned new tasks under the 2010 United States National Space Policy, including economic, diplomatic, and educational missions.
LOCATION & SIZE
- The International Space Station circumnavigates the Earth at an average height of 248 miles (400 kilometers). It travels worldwide every 90 minutes at a speed of around 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h).
- The station traverses the distance between Earth and the moon in a single day.
- The space station, including its massive solar arrays, covers the length of a football field in the United States, including the end zones, and weighs 925,335 pounds. (419,725 kg), exclusive of visiting cars.
- The complex now brags more functional space than a typical 6-bedroom house, with two baths, a gymnasium, and a 360-degree bay window.
- Astronauts have often likened the living quarters of the space station to the cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo airplane.
LIFE ON BOARD
- Inside the ISS, a multinational crew of seven people generally lives and works. However, this number might fluctuate due to crew member turnover; for example, 13 crew members visited the ISS in 2009.
- It is also the most humans in space at the exact moment. Private flights, like those from Axiom Space, occasionally transport non-professional astronauts to the space station.
- Astronauts typically go to the space station in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule or, in Russia’s case, the Soyuz capsule. After NASA’s space shuttle program concluded in 2011, the Soyuz became the principal mode of transportation for all astronauts and cosmonauts.
- Crew Dragon began flying humans with the Demo-2 mission, which took off on May 30, 2020.
- After completing unscrewed Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) in 2022, Boeing’s Starliner is poised to launch people.
- Once in the station, astronauts will typically spend six months conducting different science experiments and maintaining and repairing the ISS.
CREW ACTIVITIES
- Astronauts spend at least two hours outside of work on fitness and personal care. They also do spacewalks occasionally, have media/school events for marketing, and post updates on social media. Mike Massimino was the first astronaut to tweet from orbit from a space shuttle in May 2009.
- Small bunk beds are commonly found in ISS bedrooms. Depending on their preferences, the astronauts tie themselves to float in the confined area freely. Crews visiting the station for a few days may sleep in their spaceship or a spare place on the station, as long as they tie themselves in space.
- The International Space Station (ISS) is a long-term examination platform for human health. NASA touts it as a critical stepping stone to permitting humans to visit other solar system locations such as the moon or Mars.
- Human bodies change in microgravity, including changes to muscles, bones, the cardiovascular system, and the eyes; many scientific studies are underway to determine how severe the changes are and if we can avoid them.
- Astronauts also test items like espresso machines and 3D printers and conduct biological research on rats and plants, which the astronauts may cultivate and sometimes eat in space.
- As the world’s only microgravity laboratory, the ISS has allowed over 3,600 researchers to conduct over 2,500 experiments.
- Astronauts have limited free time in space, but they utilize it to look out the window, communicate with friends and family, take photographs, or pursue hobbies like playing instruments or sewing. In 2016, one astronaut, Mark Kelly, dressed up as a gorilla aboard the International Space Station as a prank on ground controllers.
REPAIRS
- Crews are not only in charge of science but also of station maintenance, and it sometimes necessitates them doing repairs during spacewalks.
- These repairs can be essential at times, such as when a component of the ammonia system breaks, which has happened several times. After a potentially fatal 2013 incident in which revised astronaut Luca Parmitano’s helmet filled with water while working outside the station, spacewalk safety measures.
- NASA now responds rapidly to occurrences of “water ingress.” It has also incorporated pads into the spacesuits to absorb moisture and a tube to give an alternative breathing site if the helmet fills with water.
- NASA banned spacewalks again in May 2022 after another water intrusion event, which is still being examined; Russian Orlan spacewalks continue as independently designed spacesuits.
- NASA has developed various devices, notably the humanoid Robonaut 2, to lessen the spacewalking requirement. The agile machine joined the ISS crew in 2011, but Robonaut 2 was returned to Earth in 2018 for repairs after a malfunction was discovered.
- The ISS has numerous external robotic arms that can handle maintenance issues remotely, including the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), commonly known as Dextre, and the Canadarm2 (a 57.7- foot-long robotic arm).
- Following the completion of its installation and commissioning in 2022, a European Robotic Arm on the Russian segment will be the third big operational arm on the space station.
RECORDS IN SPACE
- Regarding personnel, the ISS has achieved some critical milestones, such as an American’s longest consecutive days in space: 355 days, which occurred in 2021-2022 with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.
- The longest solo spaceflight by a woman: 328 days, during American astronaut Christina Koch’s 2019-20 space station deployments.
- A woman spent the most overall time in space: Peggy Whitson, who spent 665 days aboard the International Space Station.
- Most females in space at the same time occurred in April 2010 when women from two spaceflight missions met at the International Space Station.
- Tracy Caldwell Dyson (who went on a long-duration Soyuz trip), NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Dorothy Metcalf- Lindenberger, and Japan’s Naoko Yamazaki all came on the space shuttle Discovery on its brief STS-131 mission.
- The largest space gathering: was 13 persons in 2009, during NASA’s STS-127 shuttle mission onboard Endeavour. (Tied it a couple of times later in operation.)
- On an ISS building mission, the longest single spacewalk: was 8 hours and 56 minutes in 2001. NASA astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms took part in the event.
- The longest Russian spacewalk was 8 hours and 13 minutes during Expedition 54 when repaired an ISS antenna. Russian astronauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov were among those who took part.
VIEW FROM EARTH
- The International Space Station is prominent from Earth at night, looking like a blazing, moving point of light that rivals the brightness of the beautiful planet Venus.
- Night sky viewers who know when and where to look can see it without using a telescope from Earth.
The International Space Station Worksheets
This bundle contains 11 ready-to-use The International Space Station worksheets that are perfect for students who want to learn more about The International Space Station (ISS), which is a central modular space station in low Earth orbit.
Download includes the following worksheets:
- International Space Station Facts
- Is it Real?
- The ISS Team
- The Earth and its Environment
- Solar Energy
- Astronaut for the Day
- The Astronaut
- Space Exploration
- Space Missions
- The ISS and its Contributions
- Women in Space
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ISS?
The International Space Station (ISS) is a central modular space station in low Earth orbit.
What is the purpose of ISS?
The ISS was designed to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory, as well as transportation, maintenance, and staging facility for future trips to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.
Where is the International Space Station located?
The International Space Station circumnavigates the Earth at an average height of 248 miles (400 kilometers). It travels worldwide every 90 minutes at a speed of around 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h). The station traverses the distance between Earth and the moon in a single day.
How big is the International Space Station?
The space station, including its massive solar arrays, covers the length of a football field in the United States, including the end zones, and weighs 925,335 pounds. (419,725 kg), exclusive of visiting cars.
Is ISS visible from Earth?
The International Space Station is prominent from Earth at night, looking like a blazing, moving point of light that rivals the brightness of the beautiful planet Venus. Night sky viewers who know when and where to look can see it without using a telescope from Earth.
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Use With Any Curriculum
These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.