International Space Station vs Airbus A380
International Space Station and Airbus A380 are the same size to within half a percent.
Stacking one on the other changes nothing — they match.
The comparison in numbers
| Thing | Size | In feet | Measured as |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Space Station | 73 m | 240 ft | length |
| Airbus A380 | 72.7 m | 239 ft | length |
What the scale shows
International Space Station and Airbus A380 are the same size to within half a percent. Both are vehicles & ships, so the figures describe the same kind of thing.
Walking pace is 1.4 m/s, so crossing International Space Station's 73 m takes 52 seconds and Airbus A380's 72.7 m takes 52 seconds.
Read the rest — 7 more sections
What each figure means
The figure for International Space Station is its length (length of the pressurised modules). The figure for Airbus A380 is its length (overall length).
Crossing them
In people: International Space Station is 43 adults of 1.7 m tall, Airbus A380 is 42.8. By size International Space Station is 8th of the 14 vehicles & ships on this site and Airbus A380 is 9th, so 1 place separates them in the ranking.
How to read these two figures
Before trusting any comparison, check what each number measures. The International Space Station is given as a length, length of the pressurised modules. The Airbus A380 is given as a length, overall length. Both are length figures, so putting them on one baseline is a like-for-like comparison, although the exact individual or convention still matters.
Vehicles are listed by overall length. Rockets are the exception and are given as full stack height standing on the pad. Everything is drawn standing upright so one scale holds.
Where the pair sits among all the sizes here
Across all 86 things on this site, the International Space Station is number 55 from the top and the Airbus A380 is number 56.
Because the collection spans 13 mm up to 1,392,700 km, a ratio of 107,130,769,231× from smallest to largest, the position of a pair says a lot: the pair sits in the middle of the range rather than at an extreme.
Time to cross each one
A sprinter holding about 10 m/s covers the International Space Station in 7.3 seconds and the Airbus A380 in 7.3 seconds. Sound, at about 343 m/s in air, takes 213 milliseconds for the larger and 212 milliseconds for the smaller. A jet cruising at 900 km/h needs 292 milliseconds and 291 milliseconds.
These times assume a straight line and constant speed, which no real crossing has, but they turn a number in metres into something the body understands. At any fixed speed the travel times keep the same 1× ratio as the sizes.
The same figures in other units
The International Space Station measures 73 m, which is 240 ft or 79.8 yards. The Airbus A380 measures 72.7 m, which is 239 ft.
Questions people ask about this pair
Which is bigger, the International Space Station or the Airbus A380?
They match to within half a percent on the figures used here.
Are the two figures measured the same way?
Yes in kind: both are length figures. The International Space Station is length of the pressurised modules; the Airbus A380 is overall length.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each item has its own page that names the measurement and links to the Wikipedia article it was taken from. Some figures are rounded, and animals vary from one individual to the next, so treat them as representative values rather than records for every case.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.