Printable worksheet · Ages 9 to 11 · about 20 minutes
How many sunrises do astronauts see in a day?
A one-page worksheet using the space station's live lap time: day and night on Earth, and why astronauts see a sunrise about every hour and a half.
Numbers
Today's numbers come from the Live ISS tracker, captured when this page loaded: 12:18 UTC on 4 November 2026. Print the class set in one go so every copy matches the teacher notes. Reload for new numbers.The boxes are left blank. Pupils open the Live ISS tracker and copy in the numbers themselves, so answers vary a little: the teacher notes give the method and the range to accept.Live numbers are not available right now, so the boxes are blank: pupils look them up in the Live ISS tracker.
Orbital Radar · Space for Schools
Ages 9 to 11 · Earth and space
How many sunrises do astronauts see in a day?
The Earth spins round once a day, so we see one sunrise a day. The International Space Station (ISS) goes round the Earth much faster. Each time it goes round, the astronauts on board see one sunrise and one sunset.
Name Class Date
Today's number from the Live ISS tracker, 12:18 UTC on 4 November 2026write it in from orbitalradar.com/iss-tracker
Time for the ISS to go once round the Earth
92.9 minutes
Minutes in one day (fixed)
1,440 minutes
Minutes in one hour (fixed)
60 minutes
Open orbitalradar.com/iss-tracker and copy the Orbital Period it shows.
The Earth spins round once a day. How many sunrises do we see in one day?[1]
sunrises
Does one lap of the ISS take more or less than 2 hours? (2 hours = 120 minutes.)[1]
Round the time for one lap to the nearest 10 minutes.[1]
minutes
Each time round, the astronauts see one sunrise. How many sunrises do they see in one day? Use: 1,440 ÷ your answer to question 3.[2]
sunrises
How many sunrises would they see in one week?[1]
sunrises
Challenge. We get day and night because the Earth spins. Explain why the astronauts see a sunrise so often.[2]
Extension The Sun seems to move across our sky from east to west. Which way does the Earth spin: towards the east or towards the west? [2]
Check: your answer to question 4 should be between 15 and 16.
Teacher notes and answersNot on the pupil sheet. Printed only with "Print with answers".
Teacher notes: How many sunrises do astronauts see in a day?
Worked from the lap time on today's sheet: 92.9 minutes (12:18 UTC on 4 November 2026).
Pupils looked up the lap time themselves. It is always between 92 and 94 minutes, so the answers below still apply.
Total 8 points, plus 2 for the extension.
Answers
One. The Earth spins once a day, so we see one sunrise a day.
Less than 2 hours: 92.9 minutes is less than 120.
90 minutes.
1,440 ÷ 90 = 16 sunrises. With the exact lap time it is about 15 and a half (15.5): accept 15 or 16 with working. (1 for the method, 1 for the answer)
16 × 7 = 112 sunrises. Accept 105 to 112 with working.
The ISS goes all the way round the Earth in about an hour and a half, much faster than the Earth spins. Each time it comes out of the Earth's shadow into sunlight, the astronauts see a sunrise.
Extension: towards the east. The Sun rises in the east and seems to move west across the sky because the Earth turns towards the east.
Watch for
Pupils who think the Sun goes round the Earth: the Sun only seems to move across the sky because the Earth spins.
On most laps the ISS is in sunlight for about an hour and in the Earth's shadow for up to about 35 minutes. A few times a year its orbit lines up with the Sun and it stays in sunlight for a few days, with no sunrises at all.
Curriculum
England: Year 5 Earth and space (the Earth's rotation, day and night and the Sun's apparent movement across the sky). Wales: Curriculum for Wales, Science and Technology, Being curious (progression step 2). Northern Ireland: KS2 The World Around Us, Change over Time.
How these worksheets work
One page, free to print and copy for teaching. The numbers on the sheet are captured from the live tool when the page loads, and printed with the time, so a class set printed together matches the teacher notes. Reload for new numbers.
No sign-in, no ads, and nothing for pupils to install.
Orbital Radar · Space for Schools