Sixteen sunrises. One single day. One crew.
Sixteen sunrises. One single day. One crew.
Right now, roughly 400 kilometres above your head, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are travelling at about 7.66 kilometres per second — close to 28,000 kilometres per hour. At that pace, they complete a full lap of Earth every 90 minutes.
That means sunrise arrives not once but sixteen times in a single 24-hour period. Sixteen dawns. Sixteen dusks. The crew doesn't experience a normal day cycle at all — they work to a schedule set by clocks on the ground, while the Sun rises and sets outside the window every hour and a half.
The station has been home to a continuous human presence since November 2000. Over two decades, someone has always been up there, watching the planet turn beneath them.
Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, one true fact at a time.