International Space Station in the sky. Time-exposure image showing the path (central line) of the International Space Station (ISS) as it passes through the night sky over Germany. The ISS orbits at an altitude of around 360 kilometres above the Earth, and takes about 92 minutes to complete one orbit. From Earth, the ISS often appears as the brightest point in the night sky due to the high reflectivity of the station's extensive solar panel array.