What length of time does it take to get into space and to reach the Space Station?
First, we must agree what counts as ‘space’.
The official boundary is the Kármán Line, defined at 100 km (62 miles) above mean sea level.
This line sits inside Earth’s thermosphere and lies well above conventional aircraft altitudes, which are usually under 14 km.
Space Shuttle Discovery launches from NASA Kennedy Space Center, 7 August 1997. Credit: NASA
Low Earth Orbit satellites travel between 160 km and 1,000 km above Earth.
If you drove straight up at 80 km per hour (50 mph), you’d reach space in about 1 hour 15 minutes.
If you walked at 6 km per hour (3.7 mph), it would take roughly 16 hours 40 minutes.
NASA’s Space Shuttle needed about 8.5 minutes to reach Earth orbit, according to NASA.
On 16 November 2022, Artemis 1 climbed to 162 km (100.6 miles) in 8 minutes 20 seconds.
The International Space Station orbits Earth about 16 times every 24 hours at an average altitude of 420 km.
Astronauts can reach the ISS in as little as 4 hours or it can take up to 3 days, depending on the spacecraft and mission plan.
How long did it take to get the first humans in space?
Soviet cosmonaut yuri gagarin, first man in space, in the capsule of vostok 1, april 12, 1961. (Photo by: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, pictured in the capsule of his Vostok 1 spacecraft, 12 April 1961. Credit: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin launched in Vostok 1 at 06:07 UTC.
He reached a peak altitude of 327 km (203 miles) about 10 minutes later, becoming the first human in space.
On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard flew in Freedom 7.
He reached 187.4 km (116.5 miles) at 5 minutes 14 seconds after launch, on a suborbital flight that lasted about 15 minutes.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 16: NASA’s Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with the Orion capsule attached, launches at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Artemis I mission will send the uncrewed spacecraft around the moon to test the vehicle’s propulsion, navigation and power systems as a precursor to later crewed mission to the lunar surface. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)