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What if ISS orbited Earth at 10,000 feet?

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What if the International Space Station didn’t orbit Earth at an average altitude of 400 kilometers or 250 miles up? What if it was closer… say, around two miles or 3,000 meters up above the ground? What would that look like?

In the Microsoft Flight Simulator-made video above, ISS zooms over snow-capped mountains, open farmland, the Golden Gate Bridge, New York City, and more… at 397,000 meters lower than usual. That’s around the same altitude small airplanes fly.

ISS near Central Park
Its speed: 27,600 km/h (17,150 mph).

The animation was created for the Airplane Mode YouTube channel by Benjamin Granville, who notes that “it takes 90 minutes for the ISS to orbit Earth at this speed.”

ISS over open land
What’s it like to really see ISS fly over where you live? See it for real with SpotTheStation.NASA.gov.

Watch this next: The World Below: Stunning footage from the International Space Station.

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If the Moon were replaced with some of our planets…
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The relative rotation periods of planets in 2-D

via Boing Boing.

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