How long would it take to drive to the International Space Station?

Photos make it look like deep space. It's actually only 254 miles (408 km) up — closer than some countries are to their own nearest neighbor.

Drive straight up at 65 mph 3 hr 54 min

The ISS orbits about 254 miles (408 km) above Earth.

Ground Mt. Everest · 5.5 mi Jet cruise · ≈7 mi 62 mi Kármán line still climbing ISS · 254 mi about 254 miles up Same distance. Just turned vertical.
Shrink Earth to a basketball 0.3 in

That's how far above the ball's surface the ISS would orbit.

ISS orbit · 0.3 in (7.6 mm) above the surface about the width of a pencil Earth at official basketball size about 9.4 inches across

Reaching the ISS’s height is a four-hour drive. Staying there takes 17,500 mph. At highway speed, the vertical trip takes less than four hours; the hard part of spaceflight is going sideways fast enough to keep missing Earth. Shrink Earth to a basketball and low Earth orbit is only a pencil-width away.

The Kármán line — the internationally recognized edge of space, 62 miles (100 km) up — is itself less than a quarter of the way to the ISS. Space starts a lot closer than orbit does.

Big numbers get easier to judge once you set them against a familiar scale, like a drive or a basketball. When a distance feels unimaginable, translate it into something you've actually experienced.

What distance feels huge until you picture driving it?

Explore the same distance from other places on Earth

This is the same comparison as the Point Nemo exhibit’s ISS dropdown, run from thirteen different places on Earth: from wherever you are used to measuring distance, low Earth orbit is very likely a lot closer than the postcard view of Earth from space makes it look.

See the assumptions behind the comparison

The driving analogy assumes a constant 65 mph on an imaginary road straight upward. It ignores atmosphere, gravity, orbital mechanics, traffic, and the fact that the ISS is moving. The basketball comparison scales Earth's 7,918-mile (12,742 km) mean diameter to an official-size basketball about 9.4 inches across.

Related exhibits
Sources: ISS altitude of 254 mi (408 km), the same figure used in our Point Nemo exhibit. Driving time assumes a constant 65 mph with no traffic, atmosphere, or physics getting in the way. Basketball diameter: official NBA/FIBA size (9.4 in across). Earth's mean diameter: 7,918 mi (12,742 km).