The Astronauts on the International Space Station Witness Around 15 Sunrises

The International Space Station orbits about 354 kilometers (220 miles) above the Earth and travels at approximately  27,700 km/hr (17,211 mph), so it takes about 92 minutes to circle the Earth once. For this reason, every 45 minutes the astronauts on-board see a sunrise or a sunset, with a total of 15 – 16 of each every 24 hours.

A space sunset is said to be a spectacular sight that shows in vivid detail the many layers of the Earth’s thin atmosphere. The first layer displays the dark part of the Earth experiencing night. Above that, in deep orange and yellow is the Earth’s troposphere, which contains almost all of the clouds in the sky. Then the pink to white region above the clouds which gradually turn to a light blue band, essentially the stratosphere, which is that part of the Earth’s atmosphere where airplanes fly.  The layer above the stratosphere appears as  a darker blue band that gradually fades away into the cold dark vacuum of outer space.