How many people are on the ISS? Interesting facts about the International Space Station

ISS has been a popular topic since SpaceX has confirmed a launch to the station lately. Because of this a number of users have been asking some specific questions like how many people are on the ISS. Here is some information about the ISS that could help answer the questions of the readers including how many people are on the ISS. Read more

How many people are on the ISS?

(All the data has been taken from NASA's official website)

An international crew of 6 astronauts live at the ISS and since November 2000 the station has been continuously occupied. Ideally, there are three people permanently on the station and the crew takes rotation to leave periodically. As the shuttle goes up, it has the capability to take a total of seven additional people, thus the ISS can have a maximum of ten people at a time when the shuttle is there. Russian ships also bring in people aboard, so either three, five or ten people are on the ISS. According to NASA’s report in July 2020, a total of 242 individuals from 19 different countries have managed to travel to the ISS.

Peggy Whitson has managed to set the U.S. record for spending the most total time living and working in space by spending 665 days on Sept. 2, 2017. The ISS is 109 metres long and 75 metres wide which is basically the size of a soccer field and it weighs around 420 tonnes that is about the same as 280 cars. It has a total of 932 cubic metres of space. But two-thirds of the entire station is used for equipment and storage that leaves one-third for humans to live in. Users have also been asking how long do the astronauts stay in the ISS. On average, an astronaut stays for a span of 6 months or 182 days, but the amount of time varies based on their respective mission.  Apart from this, we have also managed to list the size and the mass of ISS right here. 

International Space Station Size & Mass

• Pressurized Module Length: 239.4 feet (73 meters)
• Truss Length: 357.5 feet (109 meters)
• Solar Array Length: 115 feet (35 meters)
• Mass: 925,335 pounds (419,725 kilograms)
• Habitable Volume: 13,696 cubic feet (388 cubic meters) not including visiting vehicles
• Pressurized Volume: 32,333 cubic feet (916 cubic meters)
• With BEAM expanded: 32,898 cubic feet (932 cubic meters)
• Power Generation: 8 solar arrays provide 75 to 90 kilowatts of power
• Lines of Computer Code: approximately 1.5 million

Promo Image Source: NASA