—Patricia Watson, NASA
The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, and revisits any point on the equator every 32 hours. These characteristics can and do support Earth observation. The ISS has been the platform for the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) experiment package, Crew Earth Observations International Polar Year (IPY) experiment, and EarthKAM, Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students. These experiments have resulted in images that support Earth observation disciplines and education. Access to these experiments and the resulting data is available on the Internet. The ISS is now more than 80 percent complete and is ready to support the Earth observation community by serving as a test bed for sensor development and a platform for Earth observation with and without Crew intervention.