Take a Personal Tour of the ISS

by Nancy Atkinson on January 26, 2009

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Astronauts Michael Fincke (left), Expedition 18 commander; Sandra Magnus and cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, both flight engineers. Credit: NASA

Astronauts Michael Fincke (left), Expedition 18 commander; Sandra Magnus and cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, both flight engineers. Credit: NASA


Enjoy a personal video tour of the International Space Station with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke. The station is big — it really is getting to be a big place — so the tour is in four parts. But its worth the time to watch the entire series to see all the modules, the crew quarters, and all the different devices and racks on board. Fincke does a great job giving the “straight skinny,” as he says, and shows all the nooks and crannies of the ISS. He warns that you’ll see a station in the middle of being renovated, so there’s a little clutter, but its fun to see a kind of “day in the life” on board the ISS. Fincke even lets you fly along with him through the Kibo lab, and opens the window shutter (which is very cool!) so you can see the beautiful view of Earth from space. I thought it was fun to see that when the astronauts exercise, they watch movies, just as I like to do. Teachers, this video tour would be a great way to show your students what living on board the ISS is really like. Enjoy — its great! This was recoreded in HD, so click on the option to watch in High Quality (the red arrow on the bottom right of the screen). Here’s part 1:


Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

About

Nancy Atkinson is Universe Today's Senior Editor. She also is the host of the NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast and works with the Astronomy Cast and 365 Days of Astronomy podcasts. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.

  • Marsbug

    Cool, I want one. I’d want more growing things around me though, and a big chunk of recreational space where I could experiment with microgravity.
    It’s amazing to see though, makes it seem much more real somehow.

  • Chris

    Must be hard being an astronaut. Talk about a room with a view.

  • http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepp2a0/ Kevin F.

    Don’t forget that Fincke is from Pittsburgh and has claimed orbit for the Steelers. :D

  • Sofia

    Beautiful videos :)

  • http://highpowerrocketry.blogspot.com Conic

    100+ billion… where did all that money go?

  • G12A

    hmm…. where did hundreds of billions of dollars go? towards groundbreaking research in spaceflight & human habitation of space, overall I’d say. just a stepping stone toward being a multi-planet species….

  • http://www.thedawn.ph Gyward P. Calayag

    i was then astron indian suwas

  • Fermatti

    What is that little shuttle up on the wall behind the astronauts near the Gagarin photo?

    Is that a new ERussian space shuttle design? What is it doing there?

  • Julia

    Really enjoyed this video! These people are so brave. And the views are breathtaking! Thank you for doing this!

  • http://caspianit.co.uk Sci-Fi Si

    Cracking video, many thanks to Mike Fink.

    It’s a bit like how I imagined it, but I must say that I expected to see a few more gleaming control panels and computer screens rather than old matresses, sleeping bags and smelly socks, but hey, what the heck.

    Go ISS!

  • s0l

    Fermatti, it looks like the scrapped Hermes ESA shuttle to me…

    http://www.astronautix.com/craft/hermes.htm

    About time we get to see the inside, it’s been 10 years for god’s sake!

    Can’t believe it looks as messy as Mir! ;-)

    Looks like storage is one hell of an issue in space.

  • copppa

    Amazing video!! Many thanks to Mike Fink for taking the time to tour with us.

  • Nick Sheridan

    Fascinating to see the evolution – the Yank/Euro/Jap modules seem very 2001:SO compared to the ‘legacy’ Russian modules – but the Russian modules seem the most inhabited. Is there now an evolved standard that the newer modules are constructed to? Apart from looking better, which is the ‘nicest’ to live in? Huge thanks to Mike!
    Nick

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