British astronaut Tim Peake will blast off from Kazakhstan on Tuesday and spend six months on the International Space Station carrying out experiments.
Here are 10 amazing facts about life on the ISS.
1) The Americans drink their own urine, sweat and shower run-off; the Russians don't. Ninety-three per cent of the water onboard is reclaimed - about 6,000 litres a year.
2) Without a ventilation fan, sleeping astronauts would suffocate in a cloud of their own carbon dioxide. Without gravity, hot air doesn't rise and there are no air currents to mix gases.
3) Most astronauts tie themselves down to sleep. Those who float free get sucked towards the air filter and wake with a bump.
4) They wear disposable clothes. A clean set every three days. And there's no shower - just wet towels.
5) Astronauts grow in space. Without the compressive force of gravity their spines and other joints expand by 5-8cm.
6) The ISS clocks are set to GMT. Originally it worked on Texas time (GMT -5) to match the main control centre in Houston, but that caused problems for the Russians (GMT +3)
7) Without gravity even typing produces enough force to push astronauts away from their keyboards. Desks are fitted with restraining loops for their feet.
8) NASA astronauts eat real ice-cream. The freeze-dried stuff was launched with Apollo 7 in 1968. These days it's just for gift shops.
9) The Western and Russian crew spend much of their time apart. They sleep and work in different sections. They meet up for meals - and barter food items.
10) Some hawkish Russian politicians want to detach the Russian segment and fly free. Tensions rose following the Russian annexation of Crimea leading to talk of a break-away. But the Russians still need to attach a laboratory and a science and power module. That's unlikely to happen before 2020.
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