Where Is the International Space Station?

The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable laboratory in low Earth orbit, circling the planet at an average altitude of approximately 408 km. At that altitude, it travels at about 7.66 km/s (27,600 km/h), completing roughly 16 orbits per day. Its orbital inclination of 51.6° means it passes over about 90% of the Earth inhabited surface. Assembly began in 1998 as a collaboration between NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA, and CSA; it has been continuously inhabited since November 2000. Spanning about 109 metres end to end (including solar arrays), the ISS is the largest human-made structure in orbit.