The biggest thing humans have ever built in space
The International Space Station — the ISS — is as long as a football field and has been lived in, without a single break, since the year 2000. Usually seven astronauts from different countries live there at once, for about six months each. It zooms around the Earth 16 times a day, 400 km up.
Waking up
There is no up or down, so astronauts sleep in sleeping bags strapped to the wall, so they don't drift off and bump into things. An alarm clock wakes them — there is no morning, because the Sun rises every 90 minutes.
Breakfast
Food comes in pouches and tins. You can't have crumbs — they float everywhere and get into the machines — so bread is out and tortillas are in. Drinks come in bags with straws. Salt and pepper are liquids, because grains would float up your nose. Astronauts say food tastes bland in space because their heads feel stuffy, like a cold, so they love hot sauce.
Work
Most of the day is science: growing plants, studying how their own bodies change, testing materials, watching the Earth. Sometimes they put on a spacesuit and go outside for a spacewalk to fix something — that can take seven hours, and the suit is its own little spaceship.
Exercise — two hours, every day
In space your muscles and bones don't have to hold you up, so they start to get weak. Astronauts run on a treadmill (held down with bungee cords), ride an exercise bike, and lift weights on a special machine, for two hours every single day. Otherwise they could not stand up when they came home.
Washing
No showers! Water floats in blobs. Astronauts wash with wet cloths and rinse-free shampoo. The toilet uses air suction instead of water. And yes — the water they drink is recycled. From everything. It is cleaner than most tap water.
Bedtime
Before bed, many astronauts float to the Cupola — a room with seven windows — and watch the Earth go by. Cities glow, lightning storms flicker, and the northern lights ripple below them. Most say it is the best part of the day.
Coming home
After six months, astronauts come back in a small capsule that blasts through the air like a shooting star and lands under parachutes. They are carried out because their legs have forgotten how to walk. It takes a few weeks to feel normal again — and most of them can't wait to go back.