chapter 1 A Home In SpAce Imagine waking up in a sleeping bag But you aren’t in a tent You aren’t even on the ground You’re attached to a wall Outside your window lies the bright blue Earth You float out of your sleeping bag to start the day It’s just another morning on the International Space Station ISS A view of Earth from space What do people aboard the ISS see when they look out their windows 4
big and Fast The ISS flies 240 miles 386 kilometers above our planet It circles Earth at 17,200 miles 27,720 km per hour Each full circle around Earth is called an orbit An orbit takes ninety minutes The ISS circles high above Earth 5
Thousands of parts make up the ISS The biggest parts are called modules Many of the modules are like rooms The station has modules for sleeping working and storing supplies The modules have names such as Destiny Harmony and Unity A robot arm moves the Destiny module from a space shuttle to the ISS 6
The crews of the ISS and the space shuttle Discovery pose on the ISS in April 2010 Astronauts live and work on the space station These people are trained to travel in outer space ISS astronauts come from countries such as the United States Russia Brazil Japan and the Netherlands 7
