Joe and Dr Bea’s story Hi My name is Joe Dr Bea and I have just returned from another adventure This time it happened in space Yes 248 miles 400 km up there above your heads Normal planes fly 7.5 miles 12 km above the ground so imagine how much higher we were This was our most exciting adventure ever We have been carrying out experiments on the International Space Station or the ISS for short Yes we have been LIVING in space So let me tell you all about it 5
The ISS The International Space Station is a laboratory in space It is speeding around and around Earth on a circular path or orbit about 248 miles 400 km above us High speed It is going so fast it only takes 90 minutes to make one orbit In fact it’s flying at 8 miles 7.7 km a second That’s fast enough to go to the Moon and back in about a day It was Day One Dr Bea and I arrived at the Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas It is the home of Mission Control the place where NASA guides the International Space Station operations It was going to be our home too for a while as we began our training to become astronauts 6
Who’s on board The space station has made it possible for people to live and work in space In fact humans have been living in space every day since the first crew arrived in 1989 During an orbit the crew are in daylight for about 45 minutes and darkness for another 45 minutes They see the Sun rise and set 16 times a day Each new crew starts a new ISS expedition which usually lasts about six months There are normally six crew members on board at any time coming from the United States Russia Japan Canada and Europe What are they doing up there NASA and other space agencies throughout the world are all working on a plan to explore other worlds The space station is one of the first steps Up there scientists are developing new technologies and conducting experiments that could not be done on Earth The ISS is also an observatory where they can observe and take photos of Earth the solar system and other parts of the universe An ISS photograph shows the Sarychev volcano near Japan as it erupts pouring ash and steam into the sky 7
