how far up does the space station orbit
International Space Station The ISS is maintained in a nearly circular orbit with a minimum mean altitude of 330 km (205 mi) and a maximum of 410 km (255 mi), in the centre of the thermosphere, at an inclination of 51.6 degrees to Earth's equator, necessary to ensure that Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome may be safely launched to reach the station. Spent rocket stages must be dropped into uninhabited areas and this limits the directions rockets can be launched from the spaceport.[218][219] It travels at an average speed of 27,724 kilometres per hour (17,227 mph), and completes 15.54 orbits per day (93 minutes per orbit).[3][15] The station's altitude was allowed to fall around the time of each NASA shuttle mission. Orbital boost burns would generally be delayed until after the shuttle's departure. This allowed shuttle payloads to be lifted with the station's engines during the routine firings, rather than have the shuttle lift itself and the payload together to a higher orbit. This trade-off allowed heavier loads to be transferred to the station. After the retirement of the NASA shuttle, the nominal orbit of the space station was raised in altitude.[220][221] Other, more frequent supply ships do not require this adjustment as they are substantially lighter vehicles.[32][222]
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members.
Outer space Earth's gravity reaches out far past the Van Allen radiation belts and keeps the Moon in orbit at an average distance of 384,403 km (238,857 mi). The region outside Earth's atmosphere and extending out to just beyond the Moon's orbit, including the Lagrangian points, is sometimes referred to as cis-lunar space.[106] By consensus, any region beyond cislunar space is referred to as deep space.[107] The region of space where the gravity of the Earth remains dominant against gravitational perturbations from the Sun is called the Hill sphere.[108] This extends well out into translunar space to a distance of roughly 1% of the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun,[109] or 1.5 million km (0.93 million mi).
Paris Peace Accords