“To get to the space station takes two days, a journey dictated as much by its speed as its altitude. The station flies at an altitude of 220 miles or so (that’s more than 30 times the cruising height of a jumbo jet), but is travelling at a breakneck 17,500mph. Before astronauts can clamber aboard, they first have to chase it down and pull alongside. Go by shuttle and you will need 900 tonnes of solid rocket fuel and half a million gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to burn in the main engine.”
One response to “Life aboard the International Space Station”
Beats the view from my office window!