Episode guide
International Space Station: Sixteen Sunrises
The astronauts overhead ride one long fall around the Earth, and morning comes to them sixteen times a day. This episode floats through an evening on the station.
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The science, gently
- The space station circles Earth about every ninety minutes, so its crew sees roughly sixteen sunrises a day.
- Astronauts sleep in bags clipped to the wall, arms floating in front of them.
- The station is falling around the Earth constantly; that endless fall is what floating is.
Wonder together
- Which of your sixteen sunrises would you save, if you could keep one?
- What would your bedroom look like with no up or down?
- Who do you think is asleep above the sky right now?
Tonight's calm-down
Somewhere overhead, someone is sleeping in mid-air, held by nothing but a soft bag and trust. Let your bed hold you the same way. Gravity is doing all the work tonight.
Go further together
There's so much more to explore.
The episode is a whole story on its own. But if the wondering keeps going after the audio ends, the Family Guide opens this one all the way up: the same calm voice, turned into something you can do together at the table the next morning.
- Questions written for your child's age, not just their reading level
- One hands-on experiment, simple enough for tonight
- The science words behind it, in plain language
- A printable to color, keep, or fill in
Two versions inside: one for ages 4–6, one for ages 7–10.
Free to read while the library grows.
Listen to this episode.
Tomorrow night
If you are still wondering, farther out than the station ever goes.
Artemis IIJourney to the moon and back
Ideas inside this one: gravity.