As of Nov. 2, the International Space Station (ISS) has been in continuous use for 10 years. The space platform was sent into space in 1998, but the first astronaut and cosmonaut set up home there in November, 2000. Since then, the only time it has been unoccupied was when its crew members were doing spacewalks. The station is still incomplete, and the U.S. is set to deliver its last major contribution — a windowless storage room — next week. Here are some of the figures behind the extraordinary achievement:
57,631
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90 minutes
Amount of time it takes for the ISS to travel around the globe
4.8 miles per second
The speed at which the ISS orbits the Earth
14
Number of times the sun rises and sets during a "day" onboard the ISS
220 miles
Distance above the Earth's surface that the ISS orbits
$100 billion
The amount the Space Station has spent to build and maintain, making it one of the costliest single objects ever built. The U.S. has contributed around half of that cost.
15
Number of countries that have contributed to the construction and costs of the ISS
361 feet
Overall length of the ISS from tip to tail, making it about as long as a football field
33,023 cubic feet
The volume of the Space Station's interior — 1.5 times the volume of a Boeing 747
14
Number of habitable modules — rooms, essentially — that make up the ISS
136 days
Length of time the first inhabitants — an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts — spent onboard after the station's opening in 2000
803 days
The record total amount of time — two years and two months — spent in space by cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, first in the Mir space station and then on the ISS
6
Number of inhabitants the ISS typically has now. Each will live on the station for six months.
13
Number of inhabitants the ISS housed on July 17, 2009, during the visit of the shuttle Endeavour. That's a record for any single spacecraft.
200
Number of astronauts who have visited the ISS, including billionaire "space tourist" Dennis Tito
400
Number of scientific experiments conducted onboard during the last decade
1
Number of onboard exercise devices named after a Comedy Central host. The ISS named a treadmill after Stephen Colbert after he got his fans to submit his name in an online poll to name a new node — and won. The Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (C.O.L.B.E.R.T.) has been on board since September 2009.
2020
The year the space station is likely to be decommissioned
Sources: Scientific American, MSNBC, Space.com, Wired, New Scientist
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