NEW YORK, BRONX (ORDO News) — If you’ve ever wondered how fast the International Space Station (ISS) is moving overhead, now is the time to find out.
While the ISS doesn’t have the incredible speed of deep space probes or the Parker Solar Probe, which travels at 532,000 kilometers per hour relative to the Sun, the station’s own speed of 28,000 kilometers per hour is still impressive.
This means that it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, recording 16 sunrises and sunsets during each Earth day.
However, to truly appreciate this incredible speed, you need to see the ISS in flight against the backdrop of Earth. One YouTube channel provided this opportunity by making a video using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 that visually compares the speed of the ISS with the speed of sound.
In the video you can see how the ISS rushes over forests, flies past mountain ranges and over megacities in just a few seconds.
The ISS is not immortal, and after completing its mission, it will be destroyed by gradually lowering its orbit. In 2031, it will end up in an uninhabited area of the South Pacific called Point Nemo.
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