5,200 days in space

The Atlantic:

Mission Control in Houston literally never sleeps now, and in one corner of a huge video screen there, a counter ticks the days and hours the Space Station has been continuously staffed. The number is rounding past 5,200 days.

It’s a little strange when you think about it: Just about every American ninth-grader has never lived a moment without astronauts soaring overhead, living in space. But chances are, most ninth-graders don’t know the name of a single active astronaut—many don’t even know that Americans are up there.

A long but fascinating article about the ISS. It’s a shame it has become so “ordinary” that most of us never think of or hear about what is going on and why it is so important to mankind’s future.