The ISS Just Made History — And These 5 Stats Show Why

Impact

The International Space Station just completed its 100,000th orbit on May 16. 

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It's a huge milestone. It takes the ISS about 90 minutes, traveling at 17,500 miles per hour, to complete just one lap around the Earth. 

These five statistics show just how impressive 100,000 orbits really is.

1. 100,000 orbits is the equivalent of 2.6 billion miles, according to NASA.

2. That's about the distance from Earth to Neptune. 

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3. Or about 10 round trips from Earth to Mars.

NASA

4. 222 people have visited the station since the first astronaut set foot onboard in 2000.

NASA

5. And over 1,900 science experiments have been conducted there.

The first piece of the ISS was launched into orbit on November 20, 1998, and the station has been orbiting around Earth ever since. NASA plans to keep it flying until at least 2024