• Question: What does the International Space Station do, does it stay in the same place and who made it?

    Asked by sapphire blue to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      The international space station, as its name implies is an international partnership of countries. It was led by the USA, but major contributions from other countries, in particular Russia, which now has the only means of getting people to and from it since the space shuttle has retired.
      So the USA, Russia, Brazil, Japan and ESA have all contributed (ESA is a consortium of European countries including the UK).

      On there they do experiments that you can’t do on earth in weightless conditions. They also look at how the body functions in space, which is all stuff we need to know if we want to go to Mars.

      The space station is in low Earth orbit, about 300km above us, and passes overhead every 90 minutes or so. There are web sites (e.g. heavens-above.com) that will tell you when it is passing, and it is a very bright object easily visible as quite a fast moving light in the sky.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      Julian’s got this covered, but yes! You should definitely look out for when you might be able to see the ISS. I remember being very young, outside in my back garden, and seeing the ISS pass above for the first time. It’s really exciting!

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