Space station provides ultimate, zero-g experience

Atlantic : The International Space Station stretches the length of a football field, weighs nearly 1 million pounds, and boasts an acre of solar panels. Continuously occupied since November 2000, the station has so far housed a total 216 men and women. In his in-depth Atlantic article, Charles Fishman looks at life aboard the ISS, a singular experience that can be both thrilling and boring. Although certain activities, such as spacewalking, appeal to the human desire for adventure, such experiences are few and far between on the ISS and are usually heavily scripted to avoid disaster. In reality, the astronauts on board spend almost two-thirds of their time just maintaining the station and themselves. Nevertheless, for most, life in zero gravity is what defines being an astronaut. “You can take the most serious 50-year-old curmudgeon and put him into orbit, in zero G, and he’ll smile, he’ll laugh, he’ll giggle,” says Mike Fincke, an astronaut who has spent more time in space than any other American—381.5 days over 3 missions.