City lights streak below, taken from the International Space Station

International Space Station

Look up on a clear night and a bright moving star might actually be the International Space Station. That spirit of exploration lives on aboard the ISS, a laboratory where Earth never quite leaves the view. From the space station, astronauts photograph glowing city grids, curling auroras and lightning storms streaking through the atmosphere. The station orbits about 400 kilometres above Earth and circles the planet every 90 minutes, delivering up to 16 sunrises and sunsets each day.

Continuously occupied since 2000, it is run by a partnership of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Inside, astronauts test medicines, grow plants in microgravity and study how bones, flames and fluids behave when gravity loosens its grip. For a place no larger than a football field, it has become humanity's busiest outpost in space. And as it glides overhead, it quietly reminds us that curiosity travels well beyond our planet.