"The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in space.
The on-orbit assembly of ISS began in 1998. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye:
it has an altitude of approximately 350 km (217 mi)[1] above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,700 km
(17,210 statute miles) per hour [roughly 4.5 miles per second!], completing 15.77 orbits per day."[it takes the ISS about 90 min to go once around the Earth]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station
How big is the International Space Station?
"The complete ISS will be over 100meters [~300 feet] long and more than 70meters [~210 feet] wide.
For comparison, the space shuttles are about 38meters [~100 feet] long.
A shuttle would stretch from home plate to second base on a baseball diamond
and the Space Station would reach from home plate all the way to the outfield walls.
The inside of the Station, when complete, will have a volume roughly equal to that of three jumbo jets.
The Space Station pieces will be launched into orbit over the course of more than 40 missions,
during which they will be assembled like a giant LEGO space project."
http://www.canadainspace.ca/spacefacts_fact.php?item[0]=fact&item[1]=lesson§ionName=facts§ionID=1&topicID=-1&topicIdentifier=-1&topicAbbreviation=spaceStn&ID=139&factNumber=7&factNo=8&nextID=138
"I took these pictures during the early morning hours of May 12th using a 5-inch refractor." says amateur astronomer Dirk Ewers of Hofgeismar, Germany.
For five minutes, he tracked the ISS across the sky and his *MOVIE* of the entire 75 [degree] transit is a must see!"