20 Out of this World Facts & Figures About the International Space Station

11Night Glider Mode

Night Glider Mode

The International Space Station enters a so-called "Night Glider Mode" when it is shaded from the Sun by the Earth. This is to counteract the orbital decay which is caused by the slight atmospheric drag at the ISS's altitude.


12ISS module

ISS module

Despite each module of the International Space Station being under the jurisdiction of the country that owns it, there are some laws that apply to the entire station including copyright law and procedures for criminal prosecution.


13ISS

ISS

The ISS (International Space Station), at approximately 450000 kg and 7.7 km/s orbital velocity, has a (kinetic) energy of 13,34 terajoules which is roughly 1/5 of the energy released by the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.


14Recycled urine

Recycled urine

On the International Space Station, US astronauts drink recycled urine but the Russian refuse to.


15ISS decommission

ISS decommission

The ISS was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2020 but the deadline was extended to 2030.


16ISS video library

ISS video library

The ISS has it's own video library, featuring more than 500 movies.


17Robot Arm

Robot Arm

The international space station's 55-foot robot arm assembly is capable of lifting 220,000 pounds, which is the weight of a space shuttle orbiter.


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18C.O.L.B.E.R.T.

C.O.L.B.E.R.T.

The International Space Station has a treadmill named C.O.L.B.E.R.T. after Stephen Colbert.


19ISSpresso

ISSpresso

On board the International Space Station there is an espresso machine named ‘ISSpresso.’


20Software

Software

The flight software of the International Space Station (ISS) "exceeds 1.8 million lines of source code supported on the ground [Planet Earth] by a test environment comprised of another 3.3 million source lines of simulation software, and 11 million source lines of test scripts."

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