15 Years in Space!

Ok, this may not be related to photography, but I found it pretty amazing! Today, the International Space Station (ISS) is marking the 15th anniversary of continuous humans being on board. This is the longest continuous human presence in space, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir Station.

The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.

Some interesting facts about the ISS:

The space station has a permanent crew of six astronauts.
The ISS is traveling at a speed of around 8km (5miles) per second. (28800km per hour)
the ISS orbits Earth every 90 minutes. (Orbiting Earth about 15 times a day).
Astronauts on the ISS witness around 15 sunrises and 15 sunsets every day.
the ISS orbits between 330 km (205mi) and 435 km (270 mi) above Earth.

The ISS is the third brightest object in the sky. To lookup the ISS location in your area click here.

Also, for the live view from the ISS, click here.