International Space Station – Largest space station

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By Narendra V

International Space Station is a satellite/space station orbiting earth, at an altitude of 400 km above earth’s surface. It is the largest manmade object in space weighing more than 400 tons. It is orbiting earth at a speed of 27,000 km/h. It was constructed with international collaboration with US, Russia, European Union, Canada and Japan.

It was started with Russian module called Zarya in 1998 till now it has been added hundreds of different components. It can accommodate a crew of 6 people at maximum capacity. It is longest inhabited space station with more than 15 years of continuous occupation. It was built for scientific research in physics, biology, astronomy, meteorology.

It orbits earth 16 times a day so astronauts in the station can observe 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets in a day. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists of 17 different countries.