Friday, September 10, 2010
Sixteen nations are involved in building and supporting the International Space Station: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The call sign for the ISS is "Space Station Alpha."
With the installation of the final solar arrays, the ISS is now about equal to the length of a football field (including both end zones).
Space Station Alpha now weighs 435,592 kilograms (slightly less than one million pounds) and has, wait for it... eight miles of wiring on board.
Living space inside the ISS is about the equivalent of one and a half Boeing 747 jet liners.
Since October 2000, there have been 26 Expeditions to the ISS, where crew members have spent between 117 days and 6 months in weightlessness.
Each solar day, the space station travels a distance equal to that of a trip to the Moon and back.
Posted by PillowNaut at 9:16 AM