The International Space Station for Kids
A home in space, racing around the Earth sixteen times a day. Here’s how astronauts live, work and float up there.
What is the International Space Station?
The International Space Station, or ISS, is a giant spacecraft where astronauts live and work. It circles the Earth about 400 kilometres up, going all the way around roughly every 90 minutes. That means the crew see about 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day!
Space agencies from the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada built it together, piece by piece, in space. People have lived on board without a break since November 2000. It is about as long as a football field, with solar panels stretching out like giant wings.
📏 How high is the space station?
- Space stationabout 400 km
- Where space beginsabout 100 km
- A passenger jetabout 11 km
- Mount Everestabout 8.8 km
The Moon is much, much farther: about 384,000 km away.
A day aboard the ISS
- Astronauts sleep in small sleeping bags fixed to the wall, so they don’t drift around.
- They exercise about two hours every day, to keep their muscles and bones strong.
- Water is cleaned and recycled again and again, even sweat and wee!
- They run science experiments that can only be done in space.
Going on a spacewalk
When astronauts go outside, it is called a spacewalk. Their spacesuit is like a tiny spaceship, and the air they breathe comes from the backpack on the suit, not from a hose.
Outside, everything is tied on. Astronauts clip a safety tether, a steel cable on a reel, to the station, and pull themselves along handrails hand over hand. They also wear a small jetpack called SAFER, just in case they ever come loose and need to fly themselves back.
Space Station Facts
Space is completely silent.
Sound needs air to travel. On a spacewalk, everything an astronaut hears, like the radio and their own breathing, is inside the helmet.
The ISS travels about 28,000 km an hour.
That’s fast enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than 15 minutes.
You can see it from the ground.
The ISS looks like a bright, steady star sliding across the night sky. Space agencies publish times when it will pass over your town.
Astronauts get a little taller in space.
Floating, with no weight pressing down on their spines, they stretch by a few centimetres. They shrink back when they come home.
Its solar panels turn to follow the Sun.
Panels make power only when they face the Sun, so the station turns its huge wings all the way around every orbit.
Science words to know
- Astronaut
- A person trained to travel and work in space.
- Spacewalk
- When an astronaut goes outside a spacecraft in a spacesuit.
- Tether
- A strong cable that keeps an astronaut or tool attached to the station.
- Orbit
- A path around a planet or star. The ISS orbits the Earth.
Quick quiz!
0 / 31. How often does the ISS go around the Earth?
2. Where does a spacewalker’s air come from?
3. Why do astronauts clip on a tether?
Questions kids ask
How high is the International Space Station?
About 400 kilometres (250 miles) above the Earth.
Why do astronauts float on the space station?
Not because there is no gravity! The station and everyone in it are falling around the Earth, moving sideways so fast they keep missing it. Read why do astronauts float.
How long do astronauts stay on the ISS?
Usually about six months, though some astronauts have stayed for around a year.
How do astronauts get to the space station?
They ride a rocket to orbit in a capsule, which then docks with the station. See how do rockets work.
Spacewalk Drift
Six tools have floated loose outside the station. Use the handrail, turn, and fire short jet bursts to collect them. Remember: nothing stops you in space!
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