What is the International Space Station?

0:00 Imagine travelling five miles every single second. That's ten times faster than a speeding bullet. Welcome to Histories Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:20 Today we have a huge shout out to Rory and Brenner, all the way from Atlanta, Georgia.

0:26 We now have listeners in over 160 countries and more than 7,000 cities, which is absolutely mind-blowing.

0:35 Rory and Brenner have been looking up at the night sky, wondering what is up there, which is perfect for today. And we also want to say a big hello to Bodie in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada.

0:47 Great point, Finn! Because today we are leaving Earth behind and going to space. Space? Like rockets and going to the moon? Even better! We are talking about the International Space Station, a giant floating laboratory where astronauts live and work high above the clouds.

1:08 Whoa! A real house floating in space! I can't wait to hear how they built it without it falling down.

1:15 Finn, if you wanted to build the biggest house ever made, how would you do it?

1:21 I guess I'd get a lot of trucks, dump some bricks, and hire a ton of builders.

1:27 Well, the International Space Station, or ISS, is as big as an entire football field, including the end zones. The solar panels on the side are wider than the world's largest passenger airplane. That is gigantic! How heavy is it? It weighs almost one million pounds! And inside, it has 35,000 cubic feet of space.

1:52 That is enough room to fill one massive Boeing 747 airplane. A million pounds? How did they get it up into the sky? That was the huge problem! In the 1990s, 15 different countries decided to work together, led by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

2:14 But no rocket on Earth is strong enough to carry a million pounds at once.

2:18 Exactly. So they had to build it piece by piece in space, like the most expensive Lego set in history. It took 42 separate rocket launches just to assemble the main parts, and it cost over $100 billion. 100 billion dollars? When did they start building it? On November 20th, 1998, a Russian rocket launched the very first piece, called the Zarya module, which means sunrise.

2:48 And when did the next piece arrive?

2:50 Just two weeks later. An American space shuttle brought the second piece, called Unity, and astronauts had to connect them together while floating in outer space. That is incredible!

3:02 They just clicked them together in the dark.

3:04 Yes! Over the next two years they kept adding pieces. Finally, on November 2, 2000, the very first crew moved in. Who were the first space roommates? They were known as Expedition 1, an American astronaut named Bill Shepard, and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikilev. They launched from the exact same spot in Kazakhstan that Yuri Gigarin, the first man in space, used.

3:36 That is so historical. Did they have enough room inside? Definitely. Inside, it is larger than a six-bedroom house. And the most amazing fact is that ever since that day in the year 2000, the space station has never been empty.

3:54 Wait, you mean people have been living in space for more than 25 years straight, without a single break?

4:01 Yes. Right now, as we speak, there are humans orbiting Earth at 17,500 miles per hour.

4:10 But doing construction in space must have been scary. What if they dropped something while they were floating outside adding pieces?

4:18 Well, that actually happened. In 2008, an astronaut named Heidemarie Stefanitian Piper was doing a spacewalk to fix a jammed gear on the outside of the station.

4:30 Oh no, what happened?

4:33 Her grease gun leaked inside her tool bag. While she was cleaning it up with a wipe, the tool bag slipped right out of her hands. Did it fall all the way back to Earth and hit someone on the head? No, gravity doesn't pull things down like that in orbit. It just floated away and became its own tiny satellite.

4:54 And that bag of tools was worth $100,000.

4:58 A hundred thousand dollar floating tool bag? The military probably had to track it so it didn't crash back into the station. Space is crazy.

5:07 But Finn, living in space isn't just about building things. How do you think astronauts sleep without gravity pulling them into bed?

5:15 If there's no gravity, wouldn't they just float around and bump their heads on the ceiling while they snore?

5:21 Exactly! So they have to zip themselves into special sleeping bags that are tied tightly to the walls.

5:27unknown Ha ha ha!

5:28 Sleeping strapped to a wall! But wait, do they sleep at night? That's the tricky part, because the space station goes around the Earth so incredibly fast, completing a full circle every 90 minutes. They see a sunrise every 90 minutes.

5:44 That's 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every single day. I would never know when it was bedtime.

5:51 They have to wear thick eye masks so they aren't kept awake by the blazing sun constantly coming up through the windows.

5:58 Okay. What about drinking water? Can they just turn on a tap in the kitchen?

6:03 Nope. Water is super heavy to launch into space, so they have to recycle it. And I mean all of it. Wait, what do you mean by all of it? The space station has a special machine that collects astronauts' sweat, moisture from their breath, and yes, they're pee. Ew! They drink their own pea! The machine filters and cleans it so perfectly that it's actually cleaner than the tap water we drink on Earth.

6:31 Wow! Okay, but what do they eat? Do they have normal sandwiches? No bread allowed. Bread makes crumbs, and in zero gravity, crumbs float everywhere and get sucked into electrical panels and start fires. They eat tortillas instead, and their salt and pepper comes in liquid squirt bottles. Living in space is tough on the body too.

6:54 Because there is no gravity making them work hard, their bones and muscles get weak. So they have to exercise for two whole hours every single day. How do you run on a treadmill if you just float away? They have to wear special harnesses with bungee cords that pull them down onto the treadmill. That sounds exhausting.

7:17 Why do they go through all this trouble? Because the space station is a massive laboratory. Astronauts have run more than 4,000 science experiments up there, doing things you could never do on Earth. Like what kind of experiments? They study how plants grow without gravity. And they try to invent new medicines that can only be perfectly mixed in weightless space.

7:42 That is so important. How many people have actually visited this space house?

7:47 More than 270 people from over 20 different countries have lived there.

7:53 Okay. Do you have any more weird fact about living in space?

7:57 Did you know astronauts actually grow taller in space?

8:02 No way. Like super tall.

8:05 Without gravity pushing down on them, their spines stretch out. Astronauts can grow up to two inches taller while they live on the space station.

8:15 Wait, there is one more thing I have to ask about. How do they go to the bathroom?

8:21 I knew you'd ask. They use a special toilet that works like a vacuum cleaner. It uses air suction to pull the waste away, so nothing floats around the cabin.

8:32 That is the coolest and grossest thing I have ever heard. And the best part is, you can actually see the space station from Earth at night. It looks like a very bright, fast-moving star. Alright, Finn, quiz time. Are you ready? Okay, I'm ready. Let's see how much I remember.

8:50 First question. About how fast does the International Space Station travel in miles per hour? Next one. What was the name of the very first piece of the space station launched in 1998? Question 3. Which American astronaut dropped a tool bag worth $100,000 during a spacewalk? Here's number four. Because it moves so fast, how many sunrises do astronauts see every single day?

9:31 Last question. What happens to an astronaut's spine when they live in zero gravity? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is it travels at about 17,500 miles per hour. For question two, the first piece was called the Zaria module, which means sunrise. The answer to number three is it was Heider Marie Stephanie Shin Piper.

10:03 For question four, they see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day. And the final answer is their spine stretches out, making them up to two inches taller.

10:17 I can't believe humans built a giant floating laboratory that moves that fast. And people have lived there for 25 years. It really shows what we can achieve when countries all over the world work together. If you learn something new today, please leave us a five-star review. It helps us keep making the show for you.

10:37 Yes, just scroll down and tap the stars. And maybe let us know in your review if you would be brave enough to drink recycled space water.

10:45 Oh, and we have sister shows too. Science and philosophy is not boring, and maths is not boring. Go give those a listen and a follow as well.

10:54 And if you want a shout out on the show, or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. Thanks for exploring space with us. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye.