A Football Field in Orbit

The ISS is far bigger than it looks in photos. End to end, its solar wings span roughly the length of a football field, and the whole structure weighs about 420 tons — heavier than a fully loaded jumbo jet, yet it falls around the planet effortlessly.

It circles Earth from about 400 kilometers up, completing one full lap every 90 minutes. At that pace it crosses an entire ocean in the time you would spend on a coffee break. On a clear night you can spot it yourself: it is one of the brightest points in the sky, a steady white dot sliding past in a couple of minutes.