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magine if you were a scientist . . . and your laboratory was 250
miles (400 km) above the Earth. That’s the case for many of the
men and women who have lived and worked on American space
shuttles and at the International Space Station (ISS, shown at left). Sci-
ence is a major reason for space exploration, so scientists need to go
where the action is!
On space shuttle missions and on the ISS, scientists of all kinds work
in zero gravity. They perform experiments in many branches of science,
learning how humans can live in space. Some of the things they have
learned while working as astronauts have helped make life on Earth better.
The Scientists
and Their Science
WORDS TO UNDERSTAND
cosmonauts
space travelers from the Soviet
Union or Russia
meteorology
the study of weather
physicist
a scientist who studies physics, which exam-
ines how matter and energy move and relate
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