The International Space Station Just Completed Its 100,000th Orbit

The spacecraft has travelled more than 2.6 billion miles!

The International Space Station. (Photo: NASA)

• The International Space Station (ISS) has completed its 100,000th orbit around the Earth. Since 1998, the spacecraft travelled for more than 2.6 billion miles. It has played host to 15 and a half years of continuous human habitation for astronauts from 18 different countries. The travelled miles equals to 10 round trips to Mars or nearly the journey to Neptune.
  

• The ISS was built with the collaboration of 16 countries – US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
  

• The ISS circles Earth every 90 minutes and the inhabitants are treated to a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes. It weighs nearly 450,000 kg and is about the size of a football field.