Global Circumnavigation 501 Years Later

Circumnavigation of the world five hundred and one years ago by Ferdinand Magellan & Juan Sebastian Elcano is commemorated today 9/6/23 based on the return of their ship "Victoria" to Spain on 9/6/1522.   The trip started from Seville/ Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain in 1519 and they returned three years later without Ferdinand Magellan who was killed in the Philippines April 27, 1521 in the battle of Mactan. Therefore, it is only Captain Juan Sebastian Elcano and 18 crew members who were a part of the completion of the historic journey.

It would be another sixty-six years later that Martin Ignacio de Loyola circumnavigated the world EASTwards. He also was the first to use overland routes.  That trip from Spain (Macau) to China, and Acapulco, Mexico took 4 years. 

The definition of a (global) circumnavigation is one which forms a continuous loop  on the surface of Earth separating two regions of comparable area. This would invalidate circumventing the distance by circling either arctic poles.

Modern day circumnavigation around the world include

• David Kunst walked around the world between 20 June 1970 and 5 October 1974. 
• Jesse Martin, in 1999, was the youngest recognized person, at 18, to circumnavigate the earth unassisted, non-stop in 3 days.
• An aeroplane circumnavigation on July 11, 2019  is the fastest, 46 hrs 40 mins 22 secs, achieved by Captain Hamish Harding (UK), Captain Jacob Bech (Denmark), Captain Jeremy Ascough (South Africa), Captain Yevgen Vasylenko (Ukraine) and Qatar Executive (Qatar) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA on 11 July 2019.   
• The use of biofuels: 
  • In 2020, Robert DeLaurentis in a twin-engine aircraft "Citizen of the World" 
  • First pilot and plane to successfully use biofuels over the North and South poles. 
  • His trip originated from Gillespie Field in San Diego County on November 17, 2019
• Notable US Military Circumnavigation Events include
  • Operation Power Flite was a United States Air Force mission in which three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses became the first jet aircraft to circle the world nonstop, when they made the journey in January 1957 in 45 hours and 19 minutes, using in-flight refueling to stay aloft.
  • Operation Sand Blast - the first submerged circumnavigation of the world using the submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) 24 February 1960 – 25 April 1960  1960: A U.S. Navy Submarine Completes a First-of-a-Kind Voyage Around the World – Transportation History

How fast does the Space Station travel? | Cool Cosmos (caltech.edu)

The International Space Station travels in orbit around Earth at a speed of roughly 17,150 miles per hour (that's about 5 miles per second!). This means that the Space Station orbits Earth (and sees a sunrise) once every 92 minutes! You can see the ISS' location and speed at this link which also has a real-time video feed from cameras attached to the outside of the station.

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