What is the temperature outside the international space station?

Answer 1

Space is a place of extremes -- extremely hot or extremely cold.

It's kind of hard to talk about the temperature outside in space because there has to be something there in order to measure it. On Earth, when you say what's the temperature outside you're really asking what's the temperature of the air outside. There is no air in space -- the area outside the spacecraft is essentially empty -- a void or vacuum. If you put an object outside it would get blazing hot or extremely cold, depending on whether it was on the side of the station facing the sun or in the shaded side.

A thermometer on the sunny side would reach something like 250 degrees F (121 C), while a thermometer on the dark side would plunge to something like minus 250 degrees F (-157 C).

Answer 2

The temperature outside the International Space Station can vary significantly, ranging from approximately -250°F in shadowed areas to over 250°F in sunlight. The station itself maintains a controlled temperature inside for the astronauts.