This is happening while you’re reading this
While you’re quietly reading, a gigantic space station whizzes past above your head. Not science fiction. Not exaggeration.
The International Space Station moves at a speed of about 5 miles per second. Every second. Day and night.
That means that in the time it takes you to blink, the ISS has already traveled several miles.
5 miles per second sounds abstract… until now.
Our brains aren’t designed for such speeds. So, in human terms:
- About 17,500 miles per hour
- Faster than a rifle bullet
- Fast enough to circle the entire Earth in an hour and a half
So the ISS isn’t “standing still in space.” It’s constantly moving, at a dizzying pace.
16 sunrises per day
Due to this extreme speed, the ISS makes approximately one complete orbit around the Earth every 90 minutes.
Result:
- About 16 orbits per day
- About 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets per 24 hours
For astronauts, a day doesn’t mean morning and evening, but an almost constantly changing light and dark.
Why does it have to go so fast?
The ISS is about 250 miles above Earth. That sounds high, but there’s still a tiny bit of atmosphere there.
That creates friction. And friction slows things down.
To avoid falling slowly, the ISS must:
- continue to move extremely fast
- occasionally receive a little push to maintain its orbit
So the ISS is literally constantly falling… and repeatedly misses Earth because of its speed.
The most bizarre fact: you can see it yourself
Some nights you can see the ISS with the naked eye. It looks like a bright star moving remarkably fast across the sky.
What you see isn’t a point of light.
It’s a manned space station whizzing past your head at 5 miles per second.
One of the fastest objects humans have ever built. And sometimes you can even see it from your backyard.
